The haze is back in Malaysia – with at least two states registering unhealthy air readings on Monday as raging forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia send clouds of smoke northwards.
Transboundary haze is a long-standing problem in Southeast Asia, particularly affecting Malaysia and Singapore due to their proximity to Indonesia, where vast tracts of forests and agricultural land become fire hotspots during the dry season.
A wildfire scorched 550 hectares (1,360 acres) of land in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java over the weekend – the largest of several that spread rapidly across the island last week as parts of Southeast Asia bake in an unusually dry season.
Smog from the fires has choked the southern half of Sarawak state on Malaysian Borneo, where the air pollution index (API) hit as high as 182 in the state’s southern district of Serian as of noon on Monday.
Malaysia ranks pollution readings of between 100 and 200 as “unhealthy”. Readings above 200 are considered “very unhealthy” and typically lead to closures of schools and hard limits on outdoor activities.
The Sarawak state government has urged the public to limit outdoor activities for as long as the haze persists, especially since there is little it can do to address the issue.
