Govt prepared to declare emergency in areas where API exceed 400

The government is ready to propose declaring an emergency for any area that records an Air Pollution Index (API) reading above 400, in line with the standard operating procedure for haze management in the country.

Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup said the measure could be considered if the API reading was at a very dangerous level, like in Serian, Sarawak, which recorded a reading of more than 500, leading to an emergency declaration.

“If it is more than 400, it is considered very dangerous and can be considered to declare an emergency,” he told reporters after officiating the Handover Ceremony of the Madani Adoption Village and Madani Adoption School Project in 2026 at Dataran Kampung Basong, Kuala Berang, Terengganu, today.

Arthur said only three of the 68 API monitoring stations nationwide had recorded very unhealthy readings so far, namely in Kuching, Samarahan, and Sri Aman in Sarawak, while Serian recorded readings at a dangerous level.

He said the declaration of emergency would remain in effect until API readings fall to a safer level, with safety measures to be taken during that period, such as school closures and wearing face masks.

It was reported yesterday that Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar declared an emergency in the entire Serian Division, Sarawak, as air quality levels had reached a hazardous level.

The Prime Minister's Office, in a statement, said the decision was made upon the advice of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg, as well as relevant agencies on the area’s air quality.

In a related development, Arthur said the cloud seeding operation carried out yesterday in Sarawak and the northern peninsula, namely Kedah and Perlis, showed positive results, with several areas recording rain starting yesterday evening until early this morning.

He said Malaysia had also received written permission from the Indonesian government allowing the country’s air assets to enter the republic’s airspace for cloud seeding operations.

“We have carried out cloud seeding operations in Sarawak and sometimes for wider operations, our air assets need to cross the border to ‘shoot’ at the clouds, and the wind will bring the clouds to our country,” he said.

In addition, Arthur said Malaysia had also offered assets and manpower to help extinguish open fires in Indonesia but, so far, there has been no official request from the republic in this regard.

- Bernama

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