BY ALLAN JAY
KUCHING: The people of Sri Aman ought to stay indoors due to the dangerous air quality outside their houses.
As of 5pm yesterday, the Air Pollution Index Monitoring Station (APIMS) in Sri Aman recorded a reading of 407 which is in the hazardous air quality level.
The districts facing very unhealthy air quality were Kuching with a reading of 231 while Samarahan and Sarikei recorded API readings of 205.
The other districts in the state experienced moderate and unhealthy air quality after the readings showed the numbers decreasing by the hours.
The districts experiencing moderate air quality were Limbang (76), ILP Miri (92), Samalaju (92), and Kapit (93) while Miri (105), Bintulu (106), Mukah (120), and Sibu (169) experienced unhealthy air quality.
In efforts to reduce the haze condition in the state, the cloud seeding operation (OPA) was executed by the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and Malaysia Meteorological Department (MET) yesterday around 1pm.
The RMAF C-130 Hercules aircraft arrived around 10.40am and preparations for the operation began straight after.
A total of 800 kilogrammes of salt were dissolved in 4,800 litres of water in four 1,200-litre water tanks.
Each tank contains about 200kg of salt solution and 1,200 litres of water which was later released from a height of around 7,000ft.
The two-hour flight operation yesterday focused around Kuching, Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, Betong, Saratok, Sarikei, Kanowit, Mukah and Lundu.
Typically, rain occurs between 30 and 60 minutes after the OPA is implemented.
