‘Stop the Johan Setia open fires’

Residents suffering badly from daily air pollution since the early 2000s

KLANG: Linda (not her real name) lounged on a rattan garden chair inside her air-conditioned living room, where the doors and windows were shut tight to keep the haze out.

Although the curtains were drawn, the grey skies outside let little sunlight into the house in Kota Kemuning, near Johan Setia, where for two decades, the land has been burning.

Linda, who has dementia and is in her 80s, stared into the distance, unaware that she has just been diagnosed with stage three lung cancer a few weeks ago.

“My mother-in-law has never smoked a cigarette in her life but she has put up with the open burning in Johan Setia for the last 20 years,” John (not his real name) told The Star.

“She is otherwise healthy and has no genetic predisposition to cancer.

“There is a strong possibility that this is due to living with constant exposure to air pollution over the years,” said John, a scientist.

While Malaysians wait for the end of the seasonal transboundary haze from forest fires in Indonesia, residents living in nearby Kampung Johan Setia see no end to the smoke that has choked them almost daily for the past decade.

Residents said the smoke caused by the slash and burn agricultural practices of farms on peatlands in Johan Setia were an issue dating as far back as the early 2000s.

They said waking up and driving home to foul, acrid odour in the air was a daily occurrence as farmers would often carry out open burning during the late evenings and early hours of the morning.

The resulting smoke affects Kota Kemuning, Bandar Bukit Rimau, Bandar Puteri, Taman Sentosa, Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Bandar Botanic, and as far as Bandar Parklands.

The transboundary haze from similar agricultural practices in Indonesia this month has worsened the smog in Johan Setia, pushing its Air Pollutant Index (API) reading to “very unhealthy” levels of over 230 – one of the worst in the nation.

Residents are growing increasingly angry and desperate for a permanent solution, saying that many of them, especially young children, were falling ill, especially from cough, asthma and flu.

John, however, said Linda did not blame the farmers for the open burning despite it greatly affecting their lives.

“She once said the farmers have livelihoods to protect too, not knowing that their agricultural practices were slowly harming her health,” he said, adding that the family had decided not to pursue treatment for her cancer.

In Bandar Putera, just a stone’s throw away from Johan Setia, a two-year-old boy was admitted to hospital for three days after suffering from fever, flu and nasal congestion during a particularly hazy week.

“When I brought my son to the emergency room, the doctor told me it could be due to all the open burning happening where we live,” said his mother Logeetha Ramus, adding that her son has to use a nebuliser.

Logeetha, 38, was not spared from the haze either. She contracted bronchitis and was quarantined at home for a week under doctor’s order.

The learning and development specialist said that ever since they moved to Bandar Putera two years ago, her five-year-old daughter had also become susceptible to flu, fever and sore throat.

“We are not coping well with the haze. I come back from work and I will see soot in my porch area. I leave my laundry out to dry for a few hours, just to find it smelly with smoke.

“For everyone else, the haze is temporary but in Johan Setia, it happens throughout the year. It gets extremely bad when the weather is hot,” she said.

In a resident WhatsApp group, residents lament that there have been many promises made by politicians, including state assemblymen, MPs, as well as by the state government, and the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry, but the open burning persists.

“We need a permanent solution. This cannot go on forever,” said Logeetha.