Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar
SIBU: Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar refuted allegations in the social media by certain quarters that the Department of Environment’s (DOE) Air Pollutant Index (API) reading are inaccurate.
Wan Junaidi described the action by these individuals as ‘a political ploy’.
“DOE has no reason to provide the public with inaccurate reading,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
He was responding to a question on allegations from certain parties in the social media that the API reading was inaccurate, and not giving a true picture of the hazy situation.
The Santubong MP clarified: “We are not alone in giving this reading. It is also (obtained) from a specialised monitoring centre in Singapore.
“We cannot refute information from Singapore as inaccurate. Other quarters are also monitoring the haze. Under the circumstances, we make comparisons before computing our own index,” he explained.
Wan Junaidi revealed a sharing of information among five countries affected by the haze.
He however admitted that the reading could be higher in certain areas. Citing an example, he said in Malacca town, the API reading was 80 whereas the reading at a nearby place with no monitoring station was actually higher.
This discrepancy was due to insufficient number of monitoring stations, which he had discussed with the department.
“We will be adding more monitoring stations across the country under the 11MP,” he said.
He said steps to ensure the wellbeing of the people would be made known in time to come.