Haze-causing hotspots to be investigated and acted upon - Palanivel

All haze-causing hotspots detected in the country shall be properly investigated and acted upon, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G.Palanivel said. He said 16 hotspots were detected through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite images, namely in Selangor (one), Johor (one), Pahang (two), Sabah (eight) and Sarawak (four). "However, the satellite was not able to show the actual number of hotspots as its observation was not comprehensive and also due to thick clouds," he said in a statement here, today. The minister said the Department of Environment (DOE) had also detected 3,973 cases of open burnings, namely on agricultural land (1,271 cases), shrubs (921 cases), jungle (840 cases), other small open burning cases (724 cases), construction areas (117 cases), waste disposal sites (69 cases) and industrial areas (31 cases) as of yesterday. Palanivel said one hotspot was also detected in Sumatera, Indonesia yesterday. Meanwhile, the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings as at 1pm today showed that the air quality in 30 areas was good, while residents in 20 other areas enjoyed moderate air quality. According to the DOE website, the areas with good API readings included Kota Tinggi (30), Alor Setar (42), Tanah Merah (30), Jerantut (45) and Ipoh (47), while among those with moderate air quality were Muar (53), Sungai Petani (54), Melaka (68), Port Dickson (71) and Bintulu (52). API readings are categorised as good (0 to 50), moderate (51 to 100), unhealthy (101 to 200) very unhealthy (201 to 300) and very dangerous (300 and above). The public could refer to DOE's website at www.doe.gov.my to find out the API readings in their respective areas.