A blanket of toxic haze is now covering large swathes of Indonesia and drifting into neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, as fires that have been burning across Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo since mid‑July intensify under a so‑called Super El Niño that is deepening drought conditions.
Indonesia’s health ministry has logged over 50,000 cases of respiratory infections linked to the smoke, of which more than 12,000 involve children under five.
Residents such as a 19‑year‑old teaching assistant in Banjarbaru described the haze in her classroom as so thick she could not see her feet, while a mother in Pengayuan village reported her three‑year‑old developing a cough, sore throat and runny nose.
In the Philippine province of Palawan, people have complained of itchy eyes, nose and throat, and Malaysia has seen a rise in asthma and conjunctivitis cases.
The fires are not purely a natural phenomenon. Experts trace the crisis to decades of land‑use change that began in the Suharto era, when vast tracts of rainforest and peatland in Kalimantan were opened for logging, oil‑palm plantations and other large‑scale projects.
Drained peatlands and cleared forest areas make the landscape far more vulnerable to burning, and satellite‑linked investigations have repeatedly accused some companies of using fire to clear land cheaply.
Peatlands, which normally act as massive carbon reservoirs, become ‘carbon bombs’ when they are drained and ignited, releasing stored carbon rapidly into the atmosphere.
Dr Nisa Novita of the Indonesian NGO Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara warned that the current fires are ripping through one of the world’s largest tropical peatland ecosystems, amplifying both health and climate risks.
Indonesia’s forestry minister Raja Juli Antoni said the fight against the blazes is entering a critical phase, noting that September marks the peak of the El Niño season.
Forest‑fire forensics specialist Professor Bambang Hero Saharjo warned that while last year’s fires burned about 359,000 hectares without an El Niño, this year’s conditions could see as much as 11 million hectares affected, comparable to the devastating 1997‑98 wildfire season.
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Category: International
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