Malaysia's Sarawak Plans Cloud Seeding as Haze From Indonesia Worsens

Malaysia's Sarawak state plans to carry out cloud-seeding operations between September 3 and 5, as smoke from wildfires in neighbouring Indonesia pushes air quality to hazardous levels across the region, officials said Monday. "Cloud seeding can only be carried out when suitable cloud formations and atmospheric conditions are present -- it cannot create rain in the absence of suitable clouds," said Douglas Uggah Embas, chairman of the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee.

Air quality deteriorated sharply across Sarawak on Monday, with seven locations recording hazardous Air Pollutant Index (API) readings above 300, led by Serian district at 475; under national guidelines, readings above 300 are considered hazardous, while levels exceeding 500 trigger consideration of a local emergency. Sarawak, which borders Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo island, has been the most affected by the haze. The cloud-seeding effort also aims to replenish critically depleted reservoirs and dams after a prolonged dry spell.

State satellite monitoring detected nine active hotspots in Sarawak, compared with 1,180 in Kalimantan, which recorded 15,587 hotspots between January and late August, including more than 13,000 in August alone. Indonesia has battled wildfires for weeks, leading to school closures and thousands of people requiring medical treatment, with smoke also drifting to Malaysia and Singapore. Authorities have deployed firefighters to hotspots in Sarawak and urged residents to limit outdoor activities and wear N95 masks.

Calling the situation "a diplomatic issue," Uggah said state authorities had urged the federal government to raise the matter with Jakarta under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. The Indonesian fires occur every year during the dry season, and this year's are being intensified by a powerful El Nino, a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that typically brings drier conditions to Indonesia and is associated with severe fires; the 2015 fires were among the deadliest on record, cloaking Southeast Asia in toxic smoke for weeks.