- Indonesia deployed cloud-seeding aircraft as wildfires tore through more than 107,000 hectares across six high-risk provinces
- Schools in affected areas suspended classes for three consecutive days as thick smoke blanketed cities including Pontianak and Palangka Raya
- Haze from the fires crossed into neighbouring Malaysia, pushing air pollution readings in parts of Sarawak to unhealthy levels
Indonesia is scrambling to bring widespread wildfires under control after blazes consumed more than 107,000 hectares of land across the country, with authorities deploying cloud-seeding planes and shutting schools in the worst-affected areas.
Firefighting efforts are concentrated on six provinces with large tracts of peatland: Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Riau.
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These areas are particularly vulnerable during the annual dry season, and conditions have worsened this year due to a more intense El Niño event, which some have described as a “Godzilla” El Niño.
Darwin Romy, an indigenous Dayak resident in Palangka Raya, the largest city in Central Kalimantan, told BBC Indonesian that the fires had been burning near his community for over a month. “The smoke has become quite thick. When we step outside, our eyes start to sting.
According to BBC, the smell of the smoke is also quite strong,” he said. He added that flames had crept close to residential areas and that water supplies for firefighting were running low.
Schools closed as haze blankets cities
In West Kalimantan, the mayor of Pontianak ordered students to study online for as long as the fires persisted. “We have started to feel it, especially at night and in the morning, as haze has already blanketed the city of Pontianak,” Mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said on Monday, as reported by AFP. Schools in other affected provinces also suspended in-person classes for three consecutive days.
Beyond the six primary provinces, a separate fire burned for nearly a week inside Mount Bromo National Park in East Java, destroying about 550 hectares before it was extinguished on Monday. Authorities have since flagged new hotspots near the caldera of the active volcano, which has been closed to tourists since August 8. While the official cause of the fire is still under investigation, local officials believe human carelessness may be responsible. “A person lit a fire, then put it out, but the fire was not fully extinguished,” said Gatot Soebroto, head of the local disaster mitigation agency.
Haze crosses into Malaysia
The smoke has drifted across the border into Malaysia, with the town of Serian in the state of Sarawak recording an Air Pollutant Index reading of 195 on August 12, the highest in the state at that time. A reading between 101 and 200 is classified as “unhealthy”, while anything above 201 is “very unhealthy” and readings above 301 are considered hazardous. At least nine areas across Sarawak logged unhealthy readings on the same day, according to Malaysian media reports.
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Source: Legit.ng