Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Smoke from forest and peatland fires burning across Indonesia has pushed air quality in parts of Malaysian Borneo to hazardous levels, leading to a surge in respiratory illness, closing hundreds of schools and forcing the cancellation of Independence Day celebrations. The smoke – drifting from fires in the Indonesian regions of Kalimantan on Borneo and Sumatra – has settled over the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo for much of August. It has also reached peninsular Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.
It is the region’s worst haze episode since 2015, when fires in Indonesia exposed tens of millions of people to toxic smoke and caused more than 500,000 people to suffer respiratory ailments. On Tuesday, six areas in Sarawak recorded hazardous air quality, with readings above 300 on Malaysia’s Air Pollutant Index. Anything above 100 is considered unhealthy.
In Kuching, the state capital, the index hit 407, while in Serian, a town close to the Kalimantan border, it hit 408. Mia Emylia Hassan, 33, a mother of two in Kuching, said the smell of smoke was inescapable. The haze arrived in early August, shortly after her 10-month-old daughter came home from the hospital after a lung infection.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has reported a sharp rise in illness nationwide. During the week of August 23 to 29, asthma cases climbed to 1,811, up from 219 the previous week, the ministry said on Saturday, while conjunctivitis cases also rose to 720, from 146. In peninsular Malaysia, Karen-Michaela Tan, an asthma patient who lives near the capital, Kuala Lumpur, said that a week after the haze thickened, she was “wheezing audibly” and “breathless when climbing stairs”.
The 52-year-old said she needed two nebuliser treatments back to back to stop the wheezing, along with a heavy dose of steroids. Her house is sealed, and two purifiers run continuously. Still, “I battle throat scratchiness and nasal dryness even with these measures”, she said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional bloc, has activated a Level 3 transboundary haze alert – its highest – for the southern part of the region. The alert signals a high risk of severe cross-border haze. ASEAN cited an increase in fire hotspots and prolonged dry weather, fuelled by an intensifying El Nino weather pattern.
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