Rain Douses Wildfires as Air Quality Improves: Asia Haze Update
Rain Douses Wildfires as Air Quality Improves: Asia Haze Update
(Bloomberg) -- The air quality in haze-hit areas in Southeast Asia is set to improve further with rain in the past few days helping douse thousands of hotspots in Indonesia’s forest and farm land.
Showers in parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan, the regions with the most wildfires, reduced smoke concentration and turned the sky bright and blue again, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency said. More rainfall is forecast for Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, western East Malaysia and western Kalimantan through Saturday, weather forecaster Maxar said in a note.
The arrival of rains should ease concerns of the haze causing a prolonged disruption to air traffic and closure of schools. The thick layer of ash and smoke, which also blanketed parts of Malaysia and Singapore in the past few weeks, has put 10 million Indonesian children at risk and threatens unborn babies with reduced growth, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates.
Here’s the latest across the region:
Indonesia hotspots
Hotspots in Indonesia fell to 1,744 on Wednesday from more than 5,000 on Friday, with Kalimantan and Sumatra accounting for the majority of fires, according to the mitigation agency.
Air quality
The air quality in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore improved to moderate levels from an unhealthy range last week, according to IQAir AirVisual pollution data on Wednesday. Jakarta remained the world’s most polluted city with an air quality index reading of 172, a level deemed as unhealthy.
Malaysian children
Malaysia evacuated 280 students from Indonesia’s Pekanbaru and Jambi after a state of emergency was declared in those areas due to the haze, according to the national disaster management agency. Of those, 160 students will return to Malaysia while 120 will go to the Malaysian Hall in Jakarta.
Central bank warning
The wildfires may hurt Indonesia’s economic growth if the problem persists, Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Dody Budi Waluyo said. While it’s still too early to measure the effect on growth, a World Bank report published after deadly wildfires in 2015 put the cost of that haze crisis at $16 billion.
Man-made fires
The country has seen as many as 328,724 hectares of forest and land burned throughout this year. Almost all cases, 99%, were man-made and 80% of the burned areas turned into plantations, according to Doni Monardo, head of the mitigation agency. Plantation companies responsible for large-scale burning of land under their license between 2015 and 2018 didn’t face any serious penalties, Greenpeace Indonesia said on Tuesday.
--With assistance from Yudith Ho.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yoga Rusmana in Jakarta at yrusmana@bloomberg.net;Eko Listiyorini in Jakarta at elistiyorini@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham at tabraham4@bloomberg.net, Yudith Ho
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