Gembong Hanung, Jakarta – Indonesia has seen an alarming surge in land and forest fires over the past month, with thick haze from burning in Kalimantan reaching neighboring Malaysia and prompting authorities there to close more than 100 schools.
Around 182,000 hectares of land and forest were burned in July alone, nearly twice the total area burned during the first half of the year, according to forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas.
The total area burned this year has reached 285,000 hectares, roughly the size of three Jakartas, with most hotspots recorded in West Kalimantan, South Papua, East Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan.
The fires have sent haze across the border into Malaysia, where thick smog has blanketed parts of Sarawak since Aug. 8, The Star reported.
On Tuesday, Sarawak's capital Kuching was ranked the most polluted major city in the world, with air quality reaching unhealthy levels, according to Swiss air-quality monitoring company IQAir.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Meteorological Department director general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip attributed the pollution to "a cross-border haze phenomenon from Kalimantan", Reuters reported.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) in Jakarta, however, acknowledged that haze from Indonesian fires may have reached Sarawak while pointing to fires within Malaysia as another source of the pollution.
"There were several hotspot distributions along the border between Indonesia and Malaysia. Therefore, it is possible for haze to enter Sarawak," BNPB head Suharyanto told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
"But there were also hotspots detected in Sarawak, so not all of the smog is coming from Indonesia," he added.
Indonesia occupies most of Borneo, with five regencies in West Kalimantan bordering Sarawak to the north.
Nusantara Atlas recorded more than 980 hotspots in West Kalimantan over the past two days, compared with 87 in Sarawak.
The latest haze episode forced Sarawak to close around 108 schools on Wednesday because of deteriorating air quality, Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported.
In Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan, worsening air pollution has also prompted the city administration to indefinitely close several schools. The city has recorded a 5 percent increase in respiratory illness cases since early August.
Transboundary haze has historically blanketed large parts of Southeast Asia during prolonged dry seasons, with land and forest clearing in Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan among the major sources of pollution.
The current fire season comes as Indonesia faces increasingly dry conditions. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned that a strong El Nino is likely to persist until the first quarter of 2027, raising the risk of prolonged drought across much of the country.
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole, another climate pattern associated with drier conditions, is also expected to prolong the dry spell and increase the risk of more widespread fires.
Source: https://asianews.network/indonesia-fires-surge-as-haze-hits-malaysia