Indonesia escalates battle against fires, putrid haze
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- Indonesia's National Disaster Agency (BNPB) deployed cloud seeding — scattering more than 8,000kg of salt onto clouds on Aug 26 alone — and poured over four million liters of water on burning areas, though spokesperson Berton Suar Pelita Panjaitan cautioned the technique depends entirely on atmospheric conditions.
- Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said more than five million people on Borneo and Sumatra were directly exposed to the haze, with 13,500 treated for respiratory infections in July and August; the ministry distributed five million masks and flagged children, the elderly, pregnant women with asthma, and outdoor workers as priority groups.
- Fires between January and July burned more than 200,000 hectares — an area three times the size of Jakarta and exceeding the totals from the 2019 and 2023 El Nino seasons — as a 'Godzilla'-rated El Nino brought drought conditions ideal for ignition.
- NGOs in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan opened shelters for babies and children affected by the haze, each able to accommodate only five children at a time, equipped with formula, oxygen tanks, medicines, and a playground.
- Mother Katharina Abi, 30, brought her two children (ages one and five) to a Palangkaraya shelter, telling AFP the smoke gets so thick by afternoon 'like there's a fire nearby' and her kids frequently suffer coughs and colds.
- The haze crossed borders, intermittently closing schools across the region and making people in Singapore and Malaysia unwell, underscoring the transboundary fallout from Indonesia's annual fire season.
- WALHI environmental advocate Indra Syahnanda urged the government to tackle the root cause — slash-and-burn land-clearing for agriculture — arguing that 'the people of West Kalimantan remain haunted by the haze and have to breathe unhealthy air' every year.
Why it matters: More than 200,000 hectares burned and 13,500 respiratory cases in just two months show Indonesia is once again reacting to — not preventing — a recurring annual haze crisis, with the burden falling hardest on children and the elderly. WALHI's plea to confront slash-and-burn agriculture at its root underscores that cloud seeding and mask distribution treat symptoms while the underlying land-clearing practice continues season after season, with cross-border haze now a predictable public-health and diplomatic flashpoint for Singapore and Malaysia.
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