Most number of hotspots in Indonesia, says ASMC

NEARLY 80 per cent of hotspots detected in t he Asean region over the past 29 days are located in Indonesia, figures from the Asean Specia lised Meteorologica l Centre (ASMC) show.

The hotspots caused by forest fires and open burning are driv ing t he current haze situation t hat is af fecting parts of t he region, including Malaysia.

The ASMC website – http:// asmc.asean.org/home/ – issues a daily report on t he number and location of hotspots.

By adding the number of daily hotspots, which dates back to July 14, it produces a figure of 1,128 as of Sunday.

Since hotspots that break out in the same location repeatedly on different dates are counted more than once, the number of unique individual hotspots is smaller than the 1,128 recorded in the data collected.

Of t he tota l 1,128 hotspots, Indonesia accounts for 899 sites, or 79.8 per cent.

MostofIndonesia’shotspots occurred on the island of Kalimantan (531), followed by Sumatra (303), Java (36) and Sulawesi (29) islands.

Malaysia, meanwhile, accounted for 71 sites, or 6.3 per cent, of the hotspots recorded.

Thirt y-t hree were recorded i n Peninsular Malaysia, 31 in Sarawak and seven in Sabah.

Other Asean countries with hotspots were Myanmar, which recorded seven, and t he Philippines wit h one.

Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, which the ASMC website categorised as one region, had 150 hotspots.

In an update, the ASMC said the southern Asean region – where Malaysia is located – is expected to see dry conditions over many areas in the next few days.

“Hotspot activ ities are expected to persist under t he prevailing dr y conditions,” it added.

Meanwhile, the air quality in Miri, Malaysia remained at hazardous levels as at 5pm (0900 GMT) on Monday.

The monitoring station at SK Kuala Baram 2 i n Miri recorded t he highest Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 353.

The second highest API reading at 5pm on Monday was at 299 at the Miri Industria l Training Institute.

An API of above 300 is considered hazardous while a reading of bet ween 201 and 300 is categorised as ver y unhealthy.

The air quality is categorised as unhealthy if the API is between 101 and 200, and an API of between 51 and 100 denotes moderate air quality.

Two other areas i n Sarawak recorded unhealthy air levels, namely Sibu (179) and Sri Aman (108).

All ot her areas in t he countr y recorded moderate API readings.

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