DESPITE a cloud-seeding exercise this afternoon, Sri Aman is still in the red zone as the air pollutant index remains at a hazardous level.

At 7pm its API reading stood at 405. Its reading was 402 this morning before soaring to 412 at 2pm.

The area is still enveloped in smoke from peat fires which the Fire and Rescue Department has struggled for at least four days to douse.

Sri Aman is the only area in the red zone after the choking smoke enveloped the country last week.

The Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) said in a statement today that the cloud-seeding operation created rainfall in Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Saratok and Sarikei.

A Royal Malaysian Air Force jet took off from the Kuching air base at 1pm and touched down after completing the operation at 3pm.

“The cloud-seeding operations went on well today. The challenge faced during today’s operations was that the cloud-seeding locations were too close to the border of the neighbouring country.

“Strong winds caused the speedy movement of clouds as soon as the salt was sprayed,” it said.

The department will continue to monitor the conditions and carry out cloud-seeding whenever the conditions are favourable to reduce the smoke in affected areas in line with the National Haze Action Plan.

Meanwhile, Kuching, one of the three areas which reported very unhealthy air quality earlier today, reported an API reading of 226 at 7pm.

Sarikei and Samarahan which saw their air quality at very unhealthy levels earlier showed improvement after reporting an API reading of 196 and 199 respectively.

The two were among the 16 areas nationwide with unhealthy air quality.

All other areas across the country experienced moderate air quality.

An API reading of 0-50 indicates good air quality, followed by moderate (51-100), unhealthy (101-200), very unhealthy (201-300) and hazardous (300 and above).

Indonesian news agency Antara News reported the country’s National Disaster Mitigation Board (BNPB) as saying that 29,039 fire brigade personnel have been roped in to douse the land and forest fires throughout the archipelago.

BNPB also deployed 44 helicopters, of which 34 will be used to spray water to put out fires while the other 10 will be used for patrolling. – September 20, 2019.