How haze from Indonesian fires impacts Southeast Asia
Thick smog has blanketed parts of Indonesia as the vast archipelago for weeks battles to contain fires that have burned large swathes of Borneo and Sumatra. The hazardous smoke has led to an increase in respiratory problems, forced schools to close, and has been drifting to neighboring countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines .
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Fires in the archipelago have released more than 23 million metric tons of carbon emissions between August 28 and September 3, according to CAMS’ Fire Emission Watch portal.It was higher than 20.7 million metric tons of emissions from fires over the same period in 2015, which was a strong El Niño year.
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“El Niño does not ignite fires. It creates the dry conditions that allow human-started fires to escape and become very large,” he told AFP. The fires are difficult to extinguish because many occurred on peatlands, a wetland ecosystem with layers of partially decomposed organic materials that become flammable when dry.
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More than five million people across Borneo and Sumatra are directly exposed to the health risks from haze, deputy health minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said last month. Over 1.4 million students were attending classes remotely, with many schools closed due to worsening air quality, an education ministry official said this week. In Malaysia, soaring pollution levels prompted the government on Friday to declare an emergency in a region of the Sarawak state in Borneo, with nearly 650 schools closed next week.
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