Cloud seeding in Sabah skies
Exercise part of efforts to beat haze, drought in the state
KOTA KINABALU: The dry and hazy weather in Sabah is expected to get some relief with a bit of cloud seeding.
Announcing the exercise yesterday, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said the cloud seeding would help address the current drought in Sabah.
“Cloud seeding will be carried out in several areas in the east and west coasts of Sabah, including Pulau Sebatik,” he said, posting photos of the operation on his Facebook page.
“We hope this can help produce rain in the areas affected by drought in Sabah,” he said, adding that the cloud seeding team had departed from the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Labuan.
Apart from RMAF, the operation was carried out together with the Meteorological Department, with its costs fully borne by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), said Hajiji.
The exercise is expected to go on until tomorrow.
So far, there has yet to be any updates on whether the operation has led to any rainfall.
Sabah has been experiencing a dry spell for over a month, with many rivers and water catchments drying up.
The state government has begun sending water to 355 villages in 12 districts statewide.
On Wednesday, Hajiji said he had directed water to be sent to some 50,800 affected households in villages in Tongod, Tuaran, Papar, Keningau, Semporna, Kota Belud, Tenom, Pitas, Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Kudat and Tawau.
A Rm7.5mil allocation has been set aside for this purpose in collaboration with Nadma, he said.
He said the Sabah Water Department and disaster operations command centres in the affected districts had also begun distributing water to the people.
The drought has also brought about fires, resulting in haze in parts of the state, including an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 154 in Kimanis and 73 at Polytechnic Kota Kinabalu as at noon yesterday.
API readings of between 0 and 50 are categorised as good, 51 to 100 (moderate), 101 to 200 (unhealthy), 201 to 300 (very unhealthy), while 300 and above are hazardous.
So far, the state Health Department has not recorded any death or heatstroke cases due to the dry spell.