Malaysia to make artificial rain to ease smog from Indonesia
Malaysia is planning to seed clouds to make rain as air quality in many areas of the country has reached unhealthy levels due to smog from forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia.
Smog covers Kuala Lumpur capital city of Malaysia (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Malaysia is planning to seedclouds to make rain as air quality in many areas of the country has reachedunhealthy levels due to smog from forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia.
Smog regularly covers parts of Southeast Asiaduring the dry season when burning is used by Indonesian people to clear landfor palm oil and other crops.
In the latest outbreak, parts of Malaysia’seastern state of Sarawak on Borneo island have been blanketed over the past fewdays.
Gary Theseira, an official at the Malaysianenvironment ministry, said the country is preparing to carry out cloud seedingto induce rain in an effort to ease the smog.
The country’s meteorological department warnedon September 8 that hot conditions will prevail for another week, and themonsoon season is expected to arrive only at the end of September or earlyOctober.
The Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technologyand Innovation said it would lodge a complaint with Indonesia for the haze, andcalled for quick action to be taken to put out the fires.
Meanwhile, Indonesia is struggling with theworst forest fires in two decades. Under pressure from neighbours, itsPresident Joko Widodo last month warned that officials would be sacked if theyfailed to stamp out forest fires.-VNA
Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta, which was among the worst-polluted cities in Southeast Asia according to the World Health Organisation’s 2015-2016 data, plans to make artificial rain to reduce air pollution.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has requested utmost efforts to extinguish widespread forest fires in the country, warning that officials would be sacked if they fail.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) of Indonesia has warned about high risks of forest and land fires in many Southeast Asian countries as a result of dry conditions in the region.
The forest fire task force of Indonesia’s Riau province has deployed four helicopters to douse the forest fires raging across the southern part of the province on Sumatra Island.
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Univers said in a statement that the new centre will serve as a hub for innovation, bringing together digital intelligence and climate ambition to accelerate Sarawak's transition toward a low-carbon, tech-enabled economy.
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Smog covers Kuala Lumpur capital city of Malaysia (Photo: AFP/VNA) 
