By Jenny Wu (translated name)

Sin Chew, 17-03 – 2014

Last Thursday as I was approaching Kuala Lumpur International Airport , l thought I was in a fairly land .The burning smell and the stinging pain in my eyes which nearly made me cry woke me up from my fantasy and l realized I was heading towards the airport and not a burning field.

On both sides of the road, trees were brownish because of the extreme hot weather or were burnt as l could see a few fire engines with firemen performing their task.

The haze actually started since the middle of last year. These few months the people were facing drought, acute water shortage, and water rationing and hazy environment. All these factors badly affected the livelihood of the people. Actually how much pollutant had we inhaled? Was it hazardous to our health?

This year the National Security Council had announced the haze and the hot spots in the country which had nothing to do with our neighbour. The Ministry of Environment as well as the Department of Environment unanimously pointed out the main cause was due to the hot and dry weather condition that resulted in peat soil fires and jungle burning naturally. Part of the jungle fire was caused by clearing of agricultural land as well as the few cases of open burning activities that were charged by the local authorities

The minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Seri Palanivel also made a similar statement and asked the people to be patient and jokingly hoped the bomoh will pray for rain. He denied that the cause was due to the lackadaisical attitude of the ministry in tackling the problem but stressed that the main cause was the hot and dry weather conditions.

The haze is a common occurrence in the country. The Ministry of Environment never educates the public on the seriousness of the problem nor inform the public what preventive measures or contingency plans that can be taken by the respective departments in tackling this problem.

In the middle of last year, the ministry under the pressure of the public made announcement of the air pollutant index (API) from three times a day to hourly report. How come this year there is no improvement?

The Ministry of Environment uses PM10 (10 micron particle diameter) air pollutant index as reference. But they never inform the public on the significance of PM10 point and the hazardous effect on the public health. Many countries implemented the PM2.5 air pollutant index point, but our nation never mentions anything about it. There is a lot of important information being held up and never revealed to the public.

Air pollution is hazardous to everyone. Even though some people may feel that they are protected by air conditioners and ventilators at the offices, restaurants, houses, amusement parks, shopping centers and even car parks but the majority who has to earn a living is exposed to hazardous air quality .

According to a foreign news report, in March, the air index of Paris fluctuated between the range of PM2.5 to PM10 for a number of days due to no wind and little rain. The authorities immediately took a few precautionary measures to overcome this condition like fixing the time for free public transport for the people.

We do not envy the free public transport, but we appreciate the measure taken to reduce the air pollution by vehicles and the message in educating the public. This is a voluntary action taken by the authorities to improve the air quality which differs from our authorities which asks us to wait patiently for the air quality to change for the better.

Original Source: 吴珍妮‧有权无责