Kualiti udara Serian 495 hampiri status ‘darurat’

Air quality in Serian, Sarawak edged closer to emergency status with an Air Pollution Index (API) reading of 495 recorded at 7 a.m. today, according to a Bernama report. The Malaysian Environmental Management System portal reveals three other Sarawak areas with severely unhealthy API readings: Kuching (289), Samarahan (265), and Sri Aman (250).

Simultaneously, six other Sarawak regions and two locations in Sabah recorded unhealthy API readings: Sarikei (181), Sibu (174), Mukah (169), Bintulu (159), Samalaju (153), Institut Latihan Perindustrian Miri (149), Sandakan (153), and Politeknik Kota Kinabalu (125). The API scale ranges from 0 to 50 (good), 51-100 (moderate), 101-200 (unhealthy), 201-300 (very unhealthy), and above 300 (hazardous).

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas reportedly said on Saturday that the state is ready to declare a state-wide emergency if air pollution from smog reaches critical levels following the cancellation of the national day celebration. If API exceeds 500, public and private sector offices will close, barring essential services, pending the declaration of a national disaster emergency by the National Disaster Management Committee, he added, according to The Borneo Post.