REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TANJUNGPINANG -- The haze arising from Sumatra's forest and plantation fires has blanketed Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a local weather analyst stated.
"The visibility is one thousand meters. It is getting worse compared to that in the previous days," Ardhito, the weather analyst of the Tanjungpinang meteorology office, noted here, Monday.
A visibility of one thousand meters usually affects air and sea transportation operations, he pointed out.
However, flights in Malaysia have not been cancelled as it most likely has sophisticated equipment to address the problem, according to Ardhito.
Haze has also affected Singapore as the wind blew from the southeast to south and then drifted in the northeast direction toward Malaysia when it reached Pekanbaru.
Malaysia, Singapore, and Riau Island have been shrouded by haze from forest fires in Jambi, Bangka Belitung, and Riau Provinces.
In the meantime, German news agency DPA reported that Malaysia's maritime and aviation departments on Sunday issued warnings over poor visibility caused by the worsening haze in the capital and elsewhere.
At least two international flights were diverted during the past two days due to poor visibility, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai stated.
He added that some maritime activities would be suspended if the visibility dropped below one nautical mile, or 1.8 kilometers, but he did not specify what would be affected.
The smoky haze hovering over Malaysia is caused by the ongoing plantation and forest fires in the nearby Indonesian provinces of Sumatra and Kalimantan, where fires are often intentionally set to clear land areas, DPA reported.
The environment department stated on Sunday that the air pollution index in Kuala Lumpur and almost all areas on the peninsula had reached unhealthy levels.
The haze is also blanketing Singapore, according to reports.
Some 1,887 hotspots, comprising 575 in Sumatra and 1,312 in Kalimantan, were detected by the Terra and Aqua Satellite on Sept. 11 afternoon. .
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