Kuala Lumpur – Choking haze from forest fires in Indonesia has blanketed parts of Peninsular Malaysia, reducing visibility to as low as 1.5 km near the capital Kuala Lumpur, government officials said on Thursday.
Smoke from the fires in Sumatra, just across the Strait of Malacca, has shrouded several states in the peninsula since Wednesday night and badly affected the Kuala Lumpur area.
"The southwesterly winds have blown the haze to the peninsula. We learned there are about 50 hot spots in Sumatra," an official at the Malaysian Meteorological Service told Reuters.
Earlier this year Malaysia banned open burning, even barbecues, with exceptions made for cremations and destroying animal carcasses, following a spate of forest and scrub fires around the country and in Indonesia.
"The haze descended to Kuala Lumpur last night. But it's not caused by forest fires in the peninsula. We don't hear reports of new fires here," said one official from the Fire and Rescue Department.
In Subang, just outside Kuala Lumpur, visibility reduced to 1.5 km from the normal 10 km while in another suburb, Petaling Jaya, visibility was slightly better at five kilometres.
Smoke pollution has raised fears that the drought-inducing El Nino weather phenomenon may be back in southeast Asia, worsening the risk of forest fires. Haze from fires in 1997 and 1998 cost regional economies $9 billion in damage to farming, transport and tourism. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed in June to cooperate in developing and implementing measures to prevent fires and provide early warning systems.
Fires in Borneo
In Singapore, Malaysia's southern neighbour, skies were clear on Thursday, though the National Environment Agency said sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific Ocean were slightly above normal, consistent with those of a weak El Nino.
"The impacts of this weak event in the region are not expected to reach the level of severity experienced during the strong 1997-98 El Nino, when extended dry weather conditions gave rise to widespread fires and prolonged thick smoke haze. "However, with the current dry season in the region, increased occurrences of slight-to-moderate haze can be expected between July and October 2002," the agency said on its website.
Kuala Lumpur government officials said conditions could worsen as forest fires were also widespread in Indonesia's Kalimantan, which shares Borneo island with the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak.
"Kalimantan is very bad. I think there around 700 hot spots there," said the meteorology official.
An Indonesian newspaper reported on Thursday that although smoke blanketed almost all of Kalimantan, the main airport of West Kalimantan remained open despite haze at hazardous levels.