CALLING ON PUTRAJAYA: Uggah (front row, fifth right), Ting (front row fourth right) and Ahmad (ninth left) with NSJA members in a photo call.
PUTRAJAYA: Sporadic open burnings are still detected in Sarawak, but the situation is generally under control.
Department of Environment (DOE) assistant chief director Datuk Dr Ahmad Kamarul Najuib Che Ahmad told members of the Northern Sarawak Journalists Association (NSJA) at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment here yesterday that the relatively low number of open burning cases was mostly due to greater public awareness about the dangers of open burning.
“There is an increase of awareness from the public at large as well as plantation companies regarding the implications of open burning.”
Also present were Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas and political secretary to the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Sebastian Ting.
Ahmad observed that the situation was markedly different from when shifting cultivation was practised extensively.
He added that the greatest danger about open burning was peat fire.
“Peat fire is the most serious as once it starts it can easily spread deep into the roots, and that will be difficult to douse off.”
He said one of the approaches undertaken by the DOE was check-dam methodology to flood the affected areas up to two metres deep.
“A total of 18 check-dams and six tube-wells have been set up in Sarawak to control the incident of peat fire in the state.
“The soil flooding methodology is the most effective way to put out fires in peat soil. The provision of tube-wells is meant to facilitate the work of the fire fighters.”