More schools close in Indonesia as haze worsens
Schools in the capital of Indonesia’s South Sumatra province switched to remote learning on Wednesday as worsening haze from forest and peatland fires pushed air pollution to unhealthy levels, adding to disruptions that had already affected more than 1.4 million students across the country, officials said. Indonesia has been plagued by forest and land fires for decades but an intensifying El Nino…
The worsening haze from forest and peatland fires in Indonesia has forced schools in the capital of South Sumatra province to switch to remote learning on Wednesday, with air pollution levels reaching unhealthy levels. This measure affects more than 250,000 students at 1,030 schools in Palembang, as officials prioritize the health and safety of children amid the health crisis caused by the toxic haze.
The haze has also forced more than 1.4 million students across the country to engage in online learning, according to Save the Children, an international non-government organization. The haze from wildfires, exacerbated by El Nino-driven dry conditions, has created a regional health crisis, extending far beyond Indonesia's borders in Southeast Asia.
Toxic smoke has been detected as far as the Philippines, over 800km away, and breached Malaysia's emergency-level threshold, prompting the declaration of an emergency in a Sarawak state town. The wildfire crisis has been particularly severe in Indonesia's Kalimantan region on Borneo, where thousands of hectares have burned. Indonesian authorities have escalated firefighting efforts, utilizing aircraft from countries including Japan, the United States, Russia, Australia, Canada, and Ukraine.
As of July, Indonesian authorities have recorded more than 202,000 hectares of burned land, nearly three times the size of Singapore.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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