Overview
- Thick smoke blanketed Pontianak in mid-September, cutting visibility below 1 kilometer and forcing the suspension or disruption of multiple commercial flights.
- Indonesia’s Health Ministry reports more than 12.5 million people exposed to haze and wildfire-related respiratory cases in affected provinces rose to 113,336 by Sept. 9.
- Authorities have deployed more than 50 aircraft for water drops and cloud seeding and accepted international help including three Japanese CH-47 Chinook helicopters and 180 crew.
- The EU Copernicus Fire Emissions Watch recorded about 19.7 million metric tons of Indonesian fire emissions in the week to Sept. 7, which was over a third of the global total for that period.
- Peat fires that smoulder underground are hard to extinguish because drained peat and slash-and-burn clearing fuel deep burns, and experts warn the El Niño-driven dry spell could keep blazes and haze active until substantial rain returns.