KUALA LUMPUR - Torrential rain fell on Kuala Lumpur on Monday (Sept 16) after cloud seeding efforts took off in the central states of peninsula Malaysia following days of delays due to unsuitable conditions.
The Meteorological Department said it was able to seed clouds over Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka with the cooperation of the National Disaster Management Agency and air force.
The nearly three-hour operation was "fruitful" as rain was reported over several targeted districts, although "not as encompassing as expected".
Hazy conditions persisted across the country, however, especially over Sarawak and the Klang Valley. In Selangor, chief minister Amirudin Shari warned that the state would seize land from farmers who continued with open burning.
He said such stern action was required as farmers in Johan Setia, an area in the Klang district, continued to burn openly despite a state government directive to cease the practice.
No arrests have been made so far as the farmers started the fires at night or early morning.
"When we went to such locations, the land owners were not there and we didn't know their whereabouts. But we had to put out the fire before looking for offenders," the Menteri Besar said.
About 500 schools in Sarawak are expected to close on Tuesday due to the haze, as the Air Pollution Index (API) reading in Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman, exceeded 200, which the Department of Environment considers "very unhealthy".
Most of the rest of the state - just north of Kalimantan, Indonesia, where hundreds of fires are raging - were blanketed in "unhealthy" smoke.
The air over the national capital of Putrajaya was also very unhealthy on Monday and 25 schools in the city are expected to shut on Tuesday.
However, the situation has improved in Johor with schools that closed beginning Sunday expected to reopen Tuesday. But state education department director Azman Adnan said that schools in districts with API readings over 100 would have to postpone all outdoor activities in line with Education Ministry instructions.
On Saturday, more than 300 schools and kindergartens in Muar, Tangkak and Pontian were told to shut down until further notice due to unhealthy API readings.
Despite some flight cancellations last Friday, Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik said travellers had not been deterred from visiting.
"The haze is something felt by all other Asean countries. This is an unavoidable phenomenon. In fact, Singapore too cannot avoid it. But not all parts of Malaysia are affected by the haze. I was just back from Langkawi and Penang, these areas are not affected by the haze," he said on Monday.
