The country is currently facing the Southwest Monsoon which began on 15 May 2023 and is expected to continue until September 2023. Typically, during this period, the country will experience less rainfall, hotter and drier weather.
The country will start to experience significant hot weather around August to September every year and open burning events can potentially occur in areas that are easily and frequently burned such as forest and peatland areas and landfill sites.
Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said, in a statement today (Aug 300, the country has been on standby since May 2023, where he chaired the National Haze and Dry Weather Master Committee Meeting, 2023 on May 26.
The purpose of this meeting is to report the latest status of weather conditions and future weather forecasts, the status of air quality, plan actions and strategies to prevent open burning and local haze, in addition to organising preparations for the possibility of cross-border haze incidents.
The meeting was attended by relevant ministries, departments and agencies as well as all state governments including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), the Department of Environment, the Malaysian Meteorological Department and the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department.
“As an initiative to prevent cross-border haze, I have submitted a letter to Malaysian plantation companies, subsidiaries and Malaysian-related companies operating in Indonesia to ensure that measures to prevent open burning in farm areas are taken appropriately to avoid farm and forest fires peat which is the main cause of transboundary haze incidents in this region.”
In addition, related efforts will also be continued with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Representative Offices in Indonesia. These efforts will also be communicated to my counterparts in Indonesia.
NRECC and the departments under supervision have also taken some proactive steps as follows:
- the activation of the National Open Burning Action Plan (PTPTK) on 2 April 2023 for the implementation of preventive, monitoring, extinguishing and enforcement actions in dealing with open burning by the ministries, departments and agencies involved;
- the activation of the Action Plan for the Prevention of Open Burning and the Standard Operating Procedures for the Prevention of Peat Land Fires to all offices of the State Department of Environment (DOE) and the state agencies involved on March 29, 2023;
- increase the frequency and area of patrolling and aerial monitoring through drones in risky and flammable areas such as peatland areas and waste disposal sites by State Authorities;
- empowering community monitoring through the Pollution Monitoring Team Program (3P) to help monitor cases of open burning;
- enhance communication, education and public awareness programs and community participation programs as preventative measures; and
- continuous monitoring of the current air quality status through 65 DOE automated stations and the current weather status and weather forecast by the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MET Malaysia).
MET Malaysia has developed a Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS) to monitor forest and peatland fires. This system has been adopted by all ASEAN countries since 2003. MET Malaysia has also implemented improvements to this system and the addition of a new element which is a 7-day forecast to monitor the potential for fire and its intensity.
All ASEAN countries continue to be called upon to use this system to enable preventive measures as well as careful preparations to be implemented to prevent cross-border haze.
The public is also advised not to commit open burning and allow land or premises to be entered or invaded by irresponsible parties to cause open burning for a specific purpose or accidentally.
If convicted for causing open burning under Section 29(A), Environmental Quality Act 1974, the offender may be fined up to RM500,000 or imprisoned for up to 5 years or both. A maximum compound of RM2,000 can also be imposed for each offence.
According to DOE records for the period 1 January 2023 until 28 August 2023, a total of 57 compounds were issued and two (2) cases were subject to court action under Section 29A, Environmental Quality Act 1974.
The public can report cases of open burning to the Department of Environment on the toll-free line, 1-800-88-2727 and https://eaduan.doe.gov.my and the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department on line 999.
The public can also check the latest information on air quality status through the DOE portal: www.doe.gov.my and through the ‘MyIPU’ application as well as check weather information from MET Malaysia through the myCuaca application.
