Indonesia doing 'everything' but struggling to curb fires

Indonesia is grappling with an intense battle against forest fires, despite deploying significant resources. Authorities report that dozens of planes and thousands of personnel are working tirelessly to contain the blazes, but the vast territory and challenging peatland conditions have proven to be formidable obstacles. The smoke produced by these fires has extended its reach across the country and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, causing widespread toxic haze.

The Indonesian government has committed 64 aircraft and 54,000 personnel to the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra since last month, employing various strategies such as water bombing to fight the fires. However, the sheer size of the region and the unique challenges posed by peatlands make the task of extinguishing the fires particularly difficult.

In West Kalimantan, one of the most affected areas, the disaster mitigation agency highlights the complexity of the fires burning within peat soils, which vary in depth and make the firefighting efforts even more challenging.

Water sources, crucial for the ground task force, are scarce in fire-affected areas, exacerbating the situation. Indigenous and civil society groups in West Kalimantan have filed a class action lawsuit against the government, including the president and the governor, for allegedly being aware of the looming disaster and the risks associated with forest and land fires.

Despite these challenges, President Prabowo Subianto has shown readiness to accept assistance from Malaysia, where the haze has led to unhealthy air quality levels. Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni warns that the wildfires may persist until November.

Malaysia has taken proactive measures to tackle the issue, launching cloud seeding operations in three southern states to maintain water supply and clear some of the haze. The capital, Kuala Lumpur, and Kuching, a city in Malaysia's Sarawak bordering three Indonesian Kalimantan provinces, have reported unhealthy air pollution levels, raising concerns about the well-being of the population.

While Indonesia has been battling wildfires during the dry season, this year's blazes are particularly intense, coinciding with a potentially record-breaking El Nino event and exacerbated by climate change, decades of forest degradation, and slash-and-burn practices. Over 202,000 hectares of land have been burned across Indonesia from January to July, with estimates suggesting nearly 300,000 hectares were affected, and nearly 896,000 hectares including August.