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Haze emergency grips Malaysian Borneo town Serian
Confirmed
In Short: Acrid smoke has enveloped Serian, a town in Sarawak, Malaysia, as air pollution levels reached critical levels, prompting a state of emergency and forcing residents to limit their outdoor activities.
Acrid smoke has hung heavily over the Malaysian town of Serian, seeping into homes and cloaking roadside stalls, as residents navigated an air-quality emergency fueled by transboundary haze from Indonesia’s raging fires.
The town, about 65 kilometers southeast of Sarawak’s capital Kuching, saw its air pollution readings reach critical levels, with API levels peaking at 512, triggering a state of emergency on Friday.
Local residents, including Ajen Anak Kunok, a retired technician, and Siaw Thien Ha, a roadside durian seller, reported that the haze forced them to limit their outdoor activities and significantly impacted their livelihoods.
The emergency has already hit local businesses hard, with markets seeing a diminished number of customers, and residents like Sister Irmina Peter expressing concerns that the situation could worsen and spread to other districts in Sarawak.
Malaysia declared a state of emergency in Serian district after API levels passed 500, exceeding the hazardous threshold of 300 under Malaysian guidelines, and peaking at 512, the first district in the country to declare an emergency this year due to worsening air quality.
What's confirmed
- In Serian, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Sarawak’s capital Kuching, residents tried to carry on with weekend routines but said the thick haze forced them to plan shorter trips to avoid the worst of the smoke.
- “I rarely leave the house when it’s like this (the haze). I only come out to buy food and groceries, then I’ll immediately head home,” said Ajen Anak Kunok, 64, a local retired technician.
- Ajen told AFP he had spent the past week battling shortness of breath and a sore throat due to the ongoing haze, before going to the hospital Saturday for treatment.
- Toxic haze has shrouded parts of Indonesia and Malaysia for weeks as Jakarta struggles to contain fires that have scorched large tracts of Borneo and Sumatra, with the plumes drifting into neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
- At the town’s markets, the usual bustling throng dwindled, while roadside sellers of Serian’s famous durians waited in vain beside their piles of fruit for customers that came in diminished numbers.
What's still developing
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- “Even when I turn on the air conditioner, I can still smell the smoke in my house,” Ajen said.
- Sarawak, which shares a border with Kalimantan, has borne the brunt of pollution in Malaysia.