KUCHING (Oct 19): Air quality in Serian, Sri Aman and Lundu remained unhealthy as of 4pm, according to the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB).

Serian recorded an Air Pollutant Index (API) of 139, followed by Lundu at 128 and Sri Aman at 113, based on readings published on the NREB website.

The latest readings showed an improvement in several areas compared with 9am, when Kuching, Samarahan, Serian and Lundu recorded unhealthy air quality.

Kuching’s API dropped from 152 to 94, while Samarahan improved from 128 to 91. Serian’s reading fell slightly from 153 to 139, while Lundu recorded a decline from 141 to 128.

Sri Aman, however, saw its API rise from 92 to 113, moving from moderate to unhealthy air quality.

Under the API classification, readings of 101 to 200 indicate unhealthy air quality, while readings of 51 to 100 are classified as moderate and zero to 50 as good.

Most other monitoring stations across Sarawak recorded moderate air quality at 4pm.

Among them were Sibu at 80, Kanowit at 75, Mukah at 73, Sarikei at 72 and Kapit at 71.

Bintulu recorded an API of 59, while Miri and Lawas registered 53 and 51 respectively.

Limbang recorded the lowest reading at 35, followed by Bario at 43 and Belaga at 49, all indicating good air quality.

No latest data was available for Betong’s monitoring station under the Malaysian Continuous Air Quality Monitoring (MCAQM) system.