Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin also said the government will exhaust all diplomatic channels to raise the urgency to Indonesia to act on the haze.
She said her ministry is working with Wisma Putra to send diplomatic notes to the Indonesian government on this.
“The ambassador of Malaysia to Indonesia is scheduled to meet the Indonesian government on Monday (today),” she said.
After the meeting, an arrangement will be made for her to speak to her Indonesian counterpart on the urgency of the matter.
In a Facebook post, Yeo said the National Disaster Management Agency is coordinating with her ministry through the Malaysian Meteorological Department as well as the Royal Malaysian Air Force to start cloud-seeding.
She said cloud-seeding work will allow for temporary relief in hard-hit areas as soon as there are sufficient clouds.
“However, the fires in Indonesia need to be put out to solve the root of the haze problem. Otherwise, the haze will come back after (the) rain.”
Yeo noted that the government had raised the issue of the transboundary haze during the meeting of the 21st Technical Working Group and Sub-Regional Ministerial Steering Committee on Transboundary Haze Pollution in August.
She said the meeting was attended by Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, where an agreement was reached to monitor and to increase preventive measures to minimise the haze during the dry spell from August to October.
“Unfortunately, just after a month, the situation of (the) Indonesian fires didn’t get better but worse.”
She said the the haze situation is expected to improve once the monsoon wind direction changes at the end of September.
At 4pm today, Kuching and Sri Aman in Sarawak recorded “very unhealthy” Air Pollutant Index (API) readings of 248. Other areas in the state which recorded “unhealthy” API recordings were Samarahan (199), Sarikei (154), Sibu (127) and Miri (111).
In the peninsula, Johan Setia in Selangor recorded a 150 “unhealthy” API reading, as well as Cheras (107) and Batu Muda (101) in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya (103) and Nilai (107) in Negeri Sembilan.