KUALA LUMPUR: Keadaan jerebu terus menunjukkan perkembangan positif apabila tiada kawasan mencatatkan Indeks Pencemar Udara (IPU) tidak sihat, sangat tidak sihat dan berbahaya, petang ini.

Berdasarkan semakan di portal Sistem IPU Jabatan Alam Sekitar, sebanyak 44 kawasan di Semenanjung, Sabah dan Sarawak mencatatkan bacaan IPU baik, sehingga jam 5 petang tadi.

Empat kawasan di Kedah merekodkan IPU sihat, masing-masing Langkawi (17), Kulim Hi-Tech (23), Alor Setar (24), Sungai Petani (32), manakala Kangar, Perlis (26).

Bacaan di tiga kawasan di Pulau Pinang turut mencatatkan IPU sihat, masing-masing di Balik Pulau (21), Minden (30), Seberang Jaya (36), manakala Taiping (24), Tanjung Malim (31), Pegoh, Perak (47).

Selangor dan Sarawak mencatatkan satu lokasi dengan IPU sihat, masing-masing Kuala Selangor (35) dan Institut Latihan Perindustrian Miri (43), manakala Kota Kinabalu (35), Kimanis (43), Labuan (44).

Di Kelantan, dua lokasi merekodkan IPU sihat, masing-masing di Tanah Merah (22), Kota Bharu (26), manakala Jerantut (25), Indera Mahkota dan Temerloh (40), Besut (29), Kuala Terengganu (35) serta Paka (47).

PETALING JAYA – Beberapa jalan di TTDI dan Damansara Utama menghala ke Damansara Jaya dilaporkan dinaiki air susulan hujan lebat hari ini.

Menerusi perkongsian pengguna Threads, brandonleowkm, keadaan banjir di kawasan terbabit bagaimanapun pulih dengan cepat selepas hujan reda.

“Jalan sepatutnya sudah boleh dilalui. Air naik dengan banyak ketika hujan, tetapi surut dengan sangat cepat,” katanya.

Seorang lagi pengguna, lazimmuhsin, turut mendakwa air banjir akan surut dalam tempoh kira-kira sejam sekiranya tiada hujan lebat.

Perkongsian itu mengundang perhatian pengguna media sosial yang bimbang keadaan jalan kembali dinaiki air sekiranya hujan lebat berterusan. – KOSMO! ONLINE

PARIS, Oct 28 — Climate change must be declared a “global health emergency” to shape governments’ policies after heat caused three million deaths between 2016 and 2023, a report in The Lancet said today.

Published by the British medical journal ahead of the COP 31 climate summit in November, the 10th edition of the report brought together 146 researchers from 30 countries to assess the impact of climate change on the health of the world’s population.

It said there were a record 710,000 heat-related deaths in 2023 with more than 70 per cent of that toll linked to human-caused climate change.

Marina Romanello, the executive director of the health and climate research project Lancet Countdown, said there were “three million heat-related deaths globally in an eight-year span since the Paris Agreement” of 2015.

“That’s roughly equivalent to the entire population of Wales being wiped out in the space of eight years due to heat,” she told a news conference.

And “68 per cent of those deaths are directly attributable to climate change.”

The legally binding international climate treaty adopted in the French capital aimed to limit global warming to well below 2C and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels.

Climate change impact 

Romanello said the global health emergency due to climate change should have “an integrated approach so that we’re not responding to emergency after emergency”.

Instead, she called for “a cohesive long-term response that builds resilience, builds capacities, and builds the possibilities of countries to avoid further emergencies moving forward”.

To determine the share of deaths attributable to warming caused by human activity, the researchers compiled the number of heat-related deaths recorded by states, then subtracted those that would have occurred in the absence of climate change, said Professor Ollie Jay of the University of Sydney.

Jay said the intensity and frequency of periods of intense heat were amplified by climate change, pointing out that last year an extreme drought affected more than half of the world’s land surface for at least one month.

Economic cost 

By reducing worker productivity, warming has cost the global economy more than one trillion dollars per year over the past three years, the researchers said.

South-east Asia and Africa, the hardest-hit regions, are estimated to have lost the equivalent of 3.9 per cent and 3.2 per cent of their GDP, compared with 0.2 per cent for Europe and 1.5 per cent for the Americas.

However there has been concrete progress in some areas.

Since 2016, 56 of the WHO’s 194 member states have adapted their health and early-warning systems to anticipate extreme events.

Investment in clean energy reached US$2.1 trillion (RM8.5 trillion) in 2025 — double that of the amount invested in fossil fuels, which cause climate change.

However fossil fuels still account for 80 per cent of global energy, causing air pollution that results in 2.73 million deaths per year, the study said.

Meanwhile, roughly 323,000 deaths have been avoided in “at least” 77 countries where air pollution from fossil fuels has fallen since 2016, according to the report.

Although funding for climate-related medical research has increased sevenfold to reach US$316 million in 2024, 84 per cent of these funds go to researchers in wealthy countries, even though the least developed nations are the most affected by the growing climate-related health threats.

Romanello said this year for the first time the researchers’ work was complicated by the disappearance of certain data sources, particularly from the United States, such as fossil fuel subsidies, which have not been made public by the US authorities.

And for the past two years, global geopolitical instability has pushed global warming and its health impact into the background, she said, stressing that inaction was exacerbating the situation. — AFP

KUALA NERUS: Kira-kira 1,000 penduduk Taman Desa Damai, Gong Badak di sini berharap tiada banjir besar berlaku tahun ini selepas beberapa langkah penambahbaikan sistem saliran dilaksanakan bagi mengatasi masalah limpahan air yang sebelum ini menjejaskan kawasan perumahan berkenaan.

Bendahari Kawasan Rukun Tetangga (KRT) Taman Desa Damai, Yusof Abdullah berkata, masalah banjir kilat di kawasan itu sebelum ini sering berlaku apabila air dari parit utama melimpah masuk ke dalam taman terutama ketika hujan lebat berterusan.

Katanya, penduduk beberapa kali mengadakan perbincangan dengan Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran (JPS) serta mengemukakan cadangan bagi mengatasi masalah berkenaan termasuk meminta pihak berkaitan menaikkan aras jalan di lokasi yang sering dilimpahi air.

“Alhamdulillah, cadangan supaya jalan di kawasan yang sering dilimpahi air itu ditinggikan dilaksanakan dan menunjukkan hasil apabila air dari parit utama tidak lagi melimpah masuk ke kawasan taman seperti sebelum ini.

“Pada hujung 2025 hingga awal tahun ini, air dalam parit memang tinggi tetapi tidak melimpah sehingga memasuki kawasan perumahan dan menyebabkan rumah penduduk dinaiki air,” katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini.

Yusof berkata, satu lagi langkah yang dilaksanakan adalah pembinaan benteng tanah di kawasan parit kecil dalam taman berkenaan pada hujung 2024 bagi menghalang air daripada melimpah.

Namun, keadaan benteng berkenaan membantu mengawal aliran air selepas melalui tempoh penyesuaian.

Katanya, pihak berkaitan turut membekalkan dua unit pam bagi menyedut air yang bertakung dalam kawasan taman sebelum disalurkan ke parit utama yang mengalir ke Sungai Kuala Nerus. – UTUSAN