Fires in Indonesia blanket Kalimantan in thick smoke
Fires in Indonesian Kalimantan, which occupies part of the island of Borneo, have caused thick smoke that has reached Malaysia, while Singapore has declared preparedness as the situation worsens. A resident of the region, Suwadi, said that visibility near his home had dropped to about five metres and that every breath feels “like smoking a cigarette”.
As The Guardian World reports, since July, about 5,000 people with respiratory symptoms have been visiting emergency departments in West Kalimantan every week. In the first half of the year, this figure was about 500 patients per week. Some school classes have been suspended, and parents are calling for education to be moved online.
Smoke spread to neighbouring countries
Malaysia and Brunei agreed to raise the issue of cross-border haze at the level of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. According to IQAir, on Tuesday Kuala Lumpur was the city with the most polluted air in the world, while Jakarta ranked second.
Nearly 600 schools were closed in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo due to hot and dry conditions. Smoke from forest fires and peatland fires is moving across borders.
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Scale of the fires and authorities’ actions
According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry, nearly 94,000 hectares burned across the country in July alone. Major fires were also recorded in Sumatra, West Papua and on the island of Lombok, where the fire destroyed the traditional village of Sade.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto ordered the revocation of business permits for companies suspected of organising land clearing. Police detained 72 people suspected of causing fires on Borneo and Sumatra; most of them are suspected of deliberately burning plots for plantations.
Officials say this year’s super El Niño may be intensifying the fires, with its peak expected in September. Experts note that draining peatlands for pulp and palm plantations reduces the soil’s ability to retain water. Fires in degraded peatlands are more difficult to extinguish because they can burn deep underground.
