KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian authorities carried out more cloud seeding operations on Monday in a bid to alleviate the haze that has plagued the country in recent weeks.
Cloud seeding operations were conducted in the states of Selangor, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan by aircraft of the Malaysian airforce, the Ministry of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment said in a statement.
Following the operations, rain had been reported in several districts of the affected states, but the results were not as widespread as expected, it said.
The air quality has dropped to "very unhealthy" levels in five areas with the country's administrative center of Putrajaya recording 203 on the Air Pollution Index (API) as of Monday morning before the cloud seeding operations were carried out.
According to the country's air quality rating, an API reading of zero to 50 is "good," 51 to 100 "moderate," 101 to 200 "unhealthy," 201 to 300 "very unhealthy," and 301 and above is "hazardous."
The ministry said on Sept. 9 that the haze was triggered by the forest fires in neighboring Indonesia.
The Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency said on Saturday a satellite image detected thick haze from a forest fire in Indonesia spreading into Malacca Strait to Singapore and Malaysia.
