Malaysia, Indonesia close thousands of schools as toxic haze intensifies
- Air quality deteriorated to ‘unhealthy’ or ‘very unhealthy’ levels on an official index in many parts of Peninsular Malaysia
- Jakarta has deployed thousands of security forces and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the plantation fires
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Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to shut their doors in Malaysia – including nearly 300 in the smog-hit capital Kuala Lumpur – over soaring health concerns sparked by toxic haze from out-of-control blazes in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands.
Indonesia said hundreds of schools in hard-hit Riau province on Sumatra would also be shut on Thursday, with 800 closed in one district alone, while about 1,300 were shut in its Central Kalimantan province on Borneo.
The closures affected at least 1.7 million students in Malaysia. It was not clear how many pupils were forced to stay home in neighbouring Indonesia.
Jakarta is deploying thousands of security forces and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the blazes, mostly started by illegal fires set to clear land for plantations.
The fires belch smog across Southeast Asia annually, but this year’s are the worst since 2015 and have added to concerns about wildfire outbreaks worldwide exacerbating global warming.
Thursday’s school shutdown marked the first mass closure in Kuala Lumpur as air quality deteriorated to “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” levels on an official index in many parts of Peninsular Malaysia, to the east of Sumatra, with the capital’s skyline shrouded by dense smog.
Malaysia’s Sarawak state, on Borneo, was also smothered in toxic haze, as the fires hike diplomatic tensions. Borneo is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
A growing number of Malaysians were suffering health problems due to the haze, with authorities saying there had been a sharp increase in outpatients at government hospitals – many suffering dry and itchy eyes.
Malaysia seeds clouds to bring relief as air quality worsens
Malaysia said on Thursday it would raise pressure on its Southeast Asian neighbours to find a solution to recurring outbreaks of smog-belching forest fires in Indonesia.
Malaysian Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin signalled she would again pursue the diplomatic route in an effort to find a solution to a crisis that has been recurring every few years for more than two decades.
“I will have a conference call with the Asean secretary-general to express our views, and we hope there will be a more effective mechanism at the Asean level so that we can cooperate to seek a long-term solution to address this problem,” she told reporters.
“The forest fires in Indonesia and the resulting haze have affected the health and well-being of people in Indonesia and the Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] region,” Singapore’s environment chief Masagos Zulkifli said on social media. “It is regretful that so many lives and livelihoods have been impacted.
“The amount of carbon emissions generated from the fires will present a major setback to the global fight against climate change.”
Thai authorities said the level of air pollution has risen since September 5, reaching a dangerous level in the last few days.
The Air Pollution Research Station of Prince of Songkhla University urged residents of the affected areas to refrain from outdoor activities and not leave home without wearing masks.
Health officials in Yala province have been giving out free masks to people on the streets while urging motorists to exercise caution when driving on highways because of poor visibility.
“We face the problem every year between July and September, the worst was in 2015,” said Kaneungnit Srisamai of the government’s environment quality monitoring centre. “We have seen less smoke in the last four years, but this year we may be facing it again due to a reduction in rainfall.”
