Malaysia Goes Back to the Haze from Forest Fires

Kuala Lumpur, Jul 23 (Prensa Latina) The haze caused by forest fires in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, returned to cover some areas of Malaysia, according to reports released today here in the media.

At least on the southern peninsula of the country, which includes the towns Bukit Rambai and Malacca was recorded on Sunday an index of unhealthy air pollution (API) of 114 points.

The director general of the National Department or Environment Halimah Hassan, said that the specialized meteorological center of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) detected three outbreaks of fires in Sumatra on Thursday that extended to 43 on Friday and 159 on Sunday.

He also stressed the importance of their increase in number, because even a light wind will transport their ash particles, but this time to a lesser quantity than a few weeks ago when the fog severely attacked Malaysia and Singapore.

The damages then, caused the urgent convening of a summit of countries affected by the phenomenon to find effective control measures at the regional level, and in which Indonesia pledged to strengthen monitoring devices and combat arson.

Meanwhile Malaysian director of the Forecast Department, Muhammad Helmi Abdullah, fears that with the arrival of a drier climate season in the coming weeks worsen the conditions and maybe not get preventive actions desirable success.