KUCHING: Sarawakians in the southern part of the state woke up thick dust as the haze worsened in Samarahan, Kuching and Sri Aman.
The three divisions registered an unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) at 8am today.
Samarahan remained as the worst affected division with an unhealthy API reading of 176 followed by Kuching with 167. The API for Sri Aman reads 163.
Sarikei showed improvement this morning when it recorded a moderate reading of92. The API reading for Sarikei was 101 yesterday.
The Department of Environment, in a statement on Thursday, said the deteriorating air quality in several parts of Sarawak are caused by transboundary haze due to peat and forests fires in Kalimantan, Indonesia.
"Based on a report by Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), it had stated that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's statelite image identified an increase in the number of hot spots in Sumatera and Kalimantan.
"As of Wednesday, a total of 140 hotspots have been identified in Sumatera.
"The satellite image had also picked up 25 hotspots in Kalimantan," said the department.
The department did not ruled out there might be more hotspots in Kalimantan since the satellite image was unable to spot hotspots for the entire territory.