KUCHING: Cloud seeding operations began yesterday, and will be conducted throughout Sarawak until tomorrow.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who visited the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base here, stressed the need for cloud seeding because the air quality in several parts of the state was
hazardous.
“The highest Air Pollutant Index (API) reading recorded today (Sept 20) as at 8am in Sri Aman was 371 (hazardous) whereas yesterday, it was 250 (very unhealthy).
“In Kuching, the reading was 250, Sarikei recorded 234, Samarahan (218), Sibu (202), Mukah (165-unhealthy), Bintulu (155), while Samalaju and Miri both recorded 100 (moderate),” he said.
Uggah, who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, said the RMAF’s C-130 Hercules aircraft would commence operations from Kuching to Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, Betong, Saratok, Sarikei, Kanowit, Sibu, Mukah and back to Sematan and Bau.
“We hope this operation will be fruitful but whether it is a success or not, it all depends on cloud availability. The thicker the cloud, the result of the cloud seeding will be greater and if there are no clouds, then it cannot be done,” he explained.
“In Sri Aman, there are some hotspots and we have mobilised five bulldozers to assist the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba). The Bombardier (CL-415 Maritime aircraft) from Miri came to assist yesterday (Sept 19) but there were water difficulties.”
Uggah said if the situation in Sri Aman was at a critical level, the Bombardier would fly over again to assist in firefighting efforts.
According to him, Bomba also tried to mobilise a helicopter but all available assets arrived in Batu Niah and could not make it to Sri Aman. They had also mobilised staff from neighbouring Betong and Serian.
“Sri Aman has three hotspots with bad haze condition while in Kuching and other districts, the haze is transboundary…the hotspots in Kalimantan have increased from 400 to 788.
“Apart from this, wind direction is also an issue…there is nothing much we can do about this. The hotspots identified in Sarawak are nine but those hotspots can be tackled by us,” he noted.
Uggah stated that all available agencies such as the Royal Malaysian Police, Malaysian Armed Forces, General Operations Force and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency would assist Bomba to put out the fires.
He added that necessary measures would be taken to alleviate the water supply issues in Sri Aman.
On the request for an API monitoring station to be set up in Serian, Uggah said the one in Samarahan was able to cover Serian, adding that a mobile station was being deployed from SK Kuala Baram to Serian this week.
“We are now studying some strategic locations where we can recommend to the Department of Environment (DoE) to install more air quality monitoring stations.”
Meanwhile, Sarawak Malaysian Meteorological Department (MET) deputy director Siniarovina Urban Sinyaw explained to the press that they were looking out for cumulus congestus clouds, also known as towering cumulus, when doing cloud seeding.
Based on analysis made, she said the availability of this type of clouds was during the afternoon, around 1pm.
“The routes that Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas mentioned earlier…we will use those routes to find the clouds and if the perfect one is found, we will perform the cloud seeding.
“The process is not done continuously but in stages where they will release the seeds and then move onto the next location if there are no clouds.
“In Sri Aman, the probability of having such clouds is 30 to 50 per cent because the area is dry. Hopefully during the cloud seeding, the wind can push the cloud formations into the areas affected by the haze,” she elaborated.
Siniarovina also added that the aircraft would fly between 4,500 feet and 7,000 feet to look for the said clouds and conduct cloud seeding.
