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Thursday October 21, 2010
Schools in Muar close as haze worsens
KUALA LUMPUR: All schools in Muar have been advised to temporarily close as the air quality in the district has reached dangerous levels. Muar recorded an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 432 at 11am yesterday. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said schools should be closed if the level passed 400, “School principals will still be able to work but students do not need to attend school until the level is below 400,” he said yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who chaired a National Security Council meeting to discuss the haze, said that co-curricular activities in all 204 schools in Muar should also be cancelled. However, he said the Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia examinations would proceed as scheduled but students were required to wear protective masks during their tests. He said the air quality in Muar reached an unhealthy level on Monday but rose to the dangerous level at 11pm on Tuesday.
“The Department of Environment has been monitoring the air pollution since Oct 15 via 51 monitoring stations in the peninsula. The API recorded in all stations showed healthy and moderate levels except for Muar and Malacca,” he said. Malacca’s API was at an unhealthy level when it recorded a reading of 111 at 11am yesterday, he said. Muhyiddin said an action plan was already activated to deal with the situation.
“We have asked the Muar authorities to inform the residents of developments. We are not hiding any information so that safety measures can be taken,” he said. “The DOE is sending 10,000 masks to schools in Muar to be distributed to the students. Mineral water will also be given as people are encouraged to drink clean water during this bad weather,” he said.
He said the DOE would also begin cloud seeding as soon as possible. Asked about the cause of the haze, Muhyiddin said it was due to fires in Sumatra which were sparked by the dry and hot weather. He added that Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas had contacted Indonesian authorities to discuss how both countries could keep the situation under control.
In Muar, Education Department officer Ramli Abdul Samad said the department would begin distributing masks to the schools soon. Ramli said a short shower in the afternoon had reduced the haze in some parts of the district, especially in the Sungai Mati areas, but there was still haze in Sungai Balang and along the coast. Healthy API readings are below 50, moderate (51-100) and unhealthy (101-200). Readings above 301 is deemed hazardous.
