Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Douglas Uggah Embas was unable to carry out aerial hot spots surveillance in Sarawak yesterday due to the poor visibility although the number of forest fires had reduced dramatically from 240 to 165 over last 24 hours.

Uggah, who was accompanied by his political secretary Dr Richard Rapu and Minerals and Geoscience Department director Dr Kamaludin Hassan, was to visit villagers in Betong division affected by drought.

douglas uggah embasUggah and his officers had waited for two hours in Kuching Airport for the aviation authorities to clear their helicopter for take-off yesterday’s morning.

He told Sarawak Update that the Department of Civil Aviation denied the request at 10.30am.

The last chopper seen taking off from the Hornbill Skyways base was Republic of Singapore Air Force’s Chinook at around 8.30am.

Uggah said no new permit for open burning would be issued and appealed to plantation owners to be vigilant in monitoring their respective farms.

“We have issued a directive to stop all open burning with immediate effect and Sarawak’s Natural Resources and Environment Board has agreed they will not issue any new open burning permit,” Uggah said.

MoU between Indonesia and Malaysia

He hoped the public would notify the authorities immediately should they spot any bush fire because once spread it would be very difficult to control, especially in peat area.

Meanwhile, Uggah also revealed that he would be flying to Riau, Indonesia, today to inspect the progress of projects aimed at mitigating the trans-boundary haze problem following the signing of a memorandum of understanding last year between the two countries.

They include:

  • Building a monitoring station
  • Courses for farmers to adopt zero burning
  • Peat management - maintaining water in peat area at reasonable level though a dam

“I will also be meeting my Indonesian counterparts before attending Asean Ministerial Meeting on Haze on Aug 18,” he added.

- Sarawak Update

azlan