KUCHING, Sept 17 ― Air pollution in Sri Aman has breached the red zone on the Air Pollutant Index (API) with readings shooting up overnight to 365 as at 8am today.

The Department of Environment’s hourly monitoring statistics of air quality shows that the API reading for the Sarawak town climbing steadily from a "very unhealthy” 290 at 2am to 311 at 3am, and reaching 359 at 7am before dipping an hour later.

Sri Aman, Lachau, Pantu and Lubok Antu are situated near the border with Indonesia’s Kalimantan where forest fires have been raging for weeks, sending thick smoke into Sarawak.

The department noted that there were 455 hotspots in Kalimantan, 450 in Sumatra and none in Sarawak and Brunei.

The air pollution in Sarawak’s capital Kuching was still at a very unhealthy level with the API reading 219 as at 8am.

Other areas in Sarawak where the API readings are unhealthy are: Samarahan (160), Sarikei (148), Sibu (166), Bintulu (128), Samalaju (113), Mukah (140) and Miri (125).

Kapit (87) and Limbang (78) have moderate air pollution.