Forest Fires Send Borneo Air Quality To "Unhealthy" Levels - AFP

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Thick haze from fires in Indonesia has caused the air quality over parts of Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island to hit unhealthy levels and visibility to plunge, officials said Tuesday.

In Sarawak's capital Kuching, the Air Pollutant Index hit 113 Tuesday morning, reaching into the unhealthy range of 101-200, a Department of Environment official told AFP. In oil-rich Bintulu it recorded 105 and the towns of Samarahan and Sri Aman posted 117 and 119 respectively.

A Malaysian Meteorological Department official in Sarawak said the haze was due to fires in West Kalimantan, in the Indonesian part of Borneo. "Normally it is caused by open burning in Kalimantan. We are in the monsoon period. The south-west winds brings the haze to Malaysia," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said satellite images taken Monday showed that there were 77 hot spots -- or burning zones -- in Indonesia's western Kalimantan and three in Sarawak's Miri. The official said the haze has also caused visibility to dip below 6.0 kilometres (3.8 miles) in Kuching, Sri Aman and Bintulu -- about half the normal level.

EDIT

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