KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians’ annual problem with haze will only get worse as the years go by thanks to our dependency on vehicles.
In fact, the problem could get even more frequent, intense and prolonged, Universiti Putra Malaysia sustainability expert Dr Mohd Yusoff Ishak said.
He said Malaysia might experience haze several times a year, even during periods when the phenomenon had not occurred before.
He added that the problem could drag on for months at a time.
“The main culprit is our dependency on private vehicles,” he said, commenting on localised haze occurring at various spots in the country.
Yusoff said some degree of localised haze could be expected during the inter-monsoon period, but the current scale was different compared with previous years.
Up to June 2017, there were 28.2 million registered vehicles in Malaysia, and the number was expected to grow steadily.
Yusoff’s statement echoed that of then natural resources and environment minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar in 2015, who had said the transboundary haze problem was aggravated by carbon emissions from cars.
But Yusoff said there were other factors contributing to the problem at the moment.
He said the dry conditions meant that developers and contractors could take full advantage of the weather to push their construction projects full swing.
“This causes the volume of dust discharged into the air to be much higher.
“The absence of parks in cities also means that there are not enough trees that can trap the dust in their canopies.”
He said these two factors, coupled with deforestation, which also decimated water catchment areas, caused the “heat island” phenomenon in the city.
“What we can do is come up with a transportation master plan for the Greater Kuala Lumpur area and weigh up matters, such as introducing a charge for vehicles entering the city, as well as build more pocket parks in high-density areas in the cities so that air quality can be regulated,” he said.
“These parks should be interconnected so that they can also serve as walkways and trails, so that it can be used by commuters or cyclists to get from one part of the city to another along a shaded stretch.”
He said the government could use the Putrajaya model of pocket parks to begin with and expand it later.
Meteorological Department National Weather and Geophysics Operations Centre director Dr Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip said haze, or smog, was common whenever there was no rain in a large area for a period of time.
“This normally occurs during the dry conditions in February and March. It (the haze now) is, however, not significant as it’s from a local source.
“The kind of haze that we have to look out for is the transboundary haze, which comes with the southwest monsoon, which runs from August to October.”
However, he said, the winds were blowing in all directions, typical of the inter-monsoon season and of lots of areas were beginning to get rain.
“So we are hopeful that the haze will clear with the rain in April.”
Up to 3pm yesterday, the highest Air Pollutant Index (API) reading recorded was in Shah Alam at 108, which falls within the unhealthy band of between 101 and 200.
This was followed by Putrajaya (98), Klang (96), Petaling Jaya (86) and Kuala Selangor (85).
In Negri Sembilan, Nilai recorded an API reading of 81, with Port Dickson reading 79. Alor Gajah and Bukit Rambai in Melaka recorded index readings of 81 and 71, respectively, while in Johor, Segamat and Tangkak both recorded an API of 78.
Readings of between 51 and 100 show a moderate API level.