Regional haze persists as Japan ends fire aid
Indonesia’s forest and peatland fires, which have caused air quality to deteriorate in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, continue to intensify despite stepped-up firefighting efforts, including recent aerial assistance from Japan.
Indonesia's ongoing forest and peatland fires continue to worsen air quality in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, despite Japan's recent aerial firefighting assistance. Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur, reached an unhealthy air quality index of 166 on Wednesday, while Singapore ranked third, with a reading of 155. Singapore's National Environment Agency reported on Thursday that dense smoke plumes were drifting from southern Sumatra and Kalimantan towards the city-state.
The recent spike in fires across Indonesia led to a sharp increase in high-confidence hot spots, with the Forestry Ministry detecting 893 such hot spots in Sumatra and Kalimantan on Tuesday evening – a jump of 600 from the previous day. South Sumatra province recorded the most hot spots. On Friday, air quality in four monitoring stations in South Sumatra, including the capital Palembang, was deemed "hazardous," the worst category on IQAir's six-tier index.
The latest flare-up occurred as Japan concluded a two-week mission in Kalimantan on Tuesday, following Indonesia's request for help in late August.
Written by urgent.news from The Jakarta Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
