Indonesia Fires Spread Haze, Leave Neighbors Exposed

Fires in Indonesia have fueled one of Southeast Asia’s worst transboundary haze episodes, leaving people in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines breathing unhealthy air. Ben Churchill, director of the WMO regional office for Asia and the Pacific, said the crisis could last weeks or months, until winds shift and rain soaks the fires. For people breathing the smoke, relief depends on weather changes and firefighting—not a quick fix.

Singapore recorded 13 consecutive days of unhealthy Pollutant Standards Index readings, its longest continuous stretch since the 2015 haze crisis. A day counts as unhealthy when the PSI exceeds 100 at any point in any part of Singapore. The measure is technical. The air reaches everyone.

Who Bears the Smoke

At a press conference on Oct. 16, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu warned that the country should prepare for prolonged haze and that air quality could breach hazardous levels. She said conditions might improve only when winds become lighter and more variable, which is expected in three to four weeks. A reprieve might come closer to the end of the year, when winds shift from their current southerly direction and carry haze away from Singapore.

Churchill said Indonesia produced about half of the world’s smoke haze during the seven days from Oct. 8, citing data from the European Union’s Copernicus programme’s Fire Emissions Watch service. The service tracks Earth using satellite data and other sources. He said fires break out when people clear land through traditional slash-and-burn practices.

Churchill said the ongoing El Niño was on course to become the strongest ever observed. It brings drier, hotter weather to the equatorial ASEAN region, and its onset coincided with the region’s dry season. He called the combination “the perfect storm” for fires to persist and spread. He also said human-driven climate change is raising global temperatures and making El Niño events and severe transboundary haze episodes more frequent and intense.

The Response on Offer

Churchill said regional cooperation on early warnings and forecasts could help people protect themselves, and that countries should work together to tackle fires and prevent future episodes from reaching such extreme levels. His proposal for ASEAN is to pool firefighting resources, invest in equipment member states can share, exchange technical expertise and make it possible to deploy crews from neighboring countries rapidly.

Fu said she had contacted her Indonesian counterpart, Environment Minister Jumhur Hidayat, to offer civilian assistance for firefighting and cloud seeding. The article describes that offer and Churchill’s regional proposals; it gives no account of community-led firefighting or mutual-aid efforts.

Churchill pointed to Australia’s reciprocal disaster-management arrangements with New Zealand, the United States and Canada, which allow support personnel and equipment to deploy and integrate quickly. He said similar agricultural practices exist in other Southeast Asian countries, so the risk isn’t limited to Indonesia.

Warnings, Rules and Weather

The WMO had warned in June that a strong El Niño would develop in 2026, Churchill said. Early notice, he argued, needs to reach all levels of society, from policymakers planning infrastructure to the agricultural sector. “Everybody can take action at some level or other, whether it's political level, whether it's community level, whether it's individual farmers or even individuals themselves,” he said. “Everyone has a say, and everyone has the power to do things differently in future, so they don't happen again.”

Churchill said monsoon rains later in the year were the only relief beyond active firefighting. The wet phase of the north-east monsoon brings higher rainfall to Southeast Asia around December, but strong El Niño conditions usually disrupt seasonal shifts, research shows. The Straits Times reported on Oct. 2 that El Niño would likely delay the dry season’s retreat; Singapore’s weatherman said the transition could happen in late October or November. Churchill said an updated forecast would be presented at the ASEAN Climate Outlook Forum in late October.

Churchill’s prescription includes changing land practices, tightening regulations and educating farmers and companies responsible for fires. “But the very best is not always enough,” he said of firefighting. For now, people across the region wait for crews, changing winds and rain.