Manjung coastal district enveloped by haze forcing 15 schools to close

IPOH: The Manjung coastal district in Perak was enveloped in haze at a “very unhealthy’ level at 1pm today, forcing the cancellation of the afternoon session of 15 schools there.
The six primary and nine secondary schools, with an enrolment of 5,945, were ordered to close their afternoon sessions after the Air Pollutant Index (API) rose to 247, said Perak education director Mohd Idris Ramli.
Today’s morning session at the schools will be cancelled if the API remained above 200, he said.
Mohd Idris named the primary schools as Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Seri Manjung, SK Kampung Dato Seri Kamarudin, SK Methodist (ACS), SK Methodist, SK Convent and SK Simpang Empat.
The secondary schools are Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Seri Manjung, SMK Ahmad Boestamam, SMK Seri Samudera, SMK Nan Hwa, SMK Methodist, SMK Methodist (ACS), SMK Tok Perdana, SMK Ambrose and SMK Dato Idris.
A check at the Department of Environment’s (DOE) website for air pollutant index (API) readings showed that the API reading for Seri Manjung as at 2pm was at 250.
The API readings for the rest of the state remains at the unhealthy mark of between 101 to 200 with Kampung Air Putih in Taiping at 121, SK Jalan Pegoh in Ipoh (115), Tanjung Malim, Perak (114), Jalan Tasek (93) and lastly Kangar at 79.
DOE principal assistant director (Air Division) Nor Aziah Jaafar said the current haze situation that hit most parts of the northern region was due to the transboundary haze pollution from Sumatra, Indonesia.
“DOE is closely monitoring the API and we predict that the API reading for Seri Manjung, Perak, will decline in the coming hours while the API readings in other areas in the northern region will fluctuate,” she said.
Meanwhile, the situation in the Klang Valley , Selangor and Putrajaya was slightly better as most of the areas were within the moderate air quality level of between 51 to 100 except for Kuala Selangor and Port Klang which recorded 130 and 117 respectively.
In George Town, Penang has advised the public to reduce outdoor activities as the haze envelopes the state.
As at 3pm today, the API reading for Seberang Jaya had reached the unhealthy mark of 112.
Perai and USM both recorded moderate API levels of 99, just a shade before the unhealthy mark is hit.
Earlier in the day at 6am, all three areas had breached the unhealthy level with readings of 115, 104 and 102 respectively.