Smoke From Burning Forests And Peat In indonesia Blanketing Malaysia, Singapore - Worst Since 2015
Three years after forest fires in Indonesia sent huge volumes of smoke billowing into Malaysia and Singapore, the Southeast Asian neighbors are dealing with a repeat of the “embarrassing” transboundary haze problem.
This year’s dry season is expected to be particularly harsh, after a relatively mild interlude since the 2015 fires and haze, due to an El Niño pattern. Indonesia has seen a surge in fires, with 42,740 hectares (105,600 acres) of land burned across the country — double the amount of land burned at this same point last year, and spanning an area two-thirds the size of Singapore.
The worst of the fires are in Riau province, on the island of Sumatra, which is experiencing its second dry season of the year. The fires there have razed 27,683 hectares (68,400 acres) since the start of the year, according to data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Ministry. The Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG), established by Indonesia’s president in the wake of the 2015 fires to prevent the burning of peat forests, says there are indications the fires this year have been set by commercial concession holders rather than smallholder farmers, given their scale and spread.
The resulting haze from the fires has for several days now blanketed large swaths of Riau, including its capital, Pekanbaru. Winds have also spread some of the haze across the Malacca Strait to Malaysia. Affected regions there include Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Putrajaya, Negri Sembilan and Penang, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia). “The haze is caused by a moderate amount of smog moving from hotspots in the central and southern parts of Sumatra due to the Southwest Monsoon winds,” MetMalaysia director-general Jailan Simon said as quoted by The Star newspaper.
EDIT
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/haze-from-fires-indonesias-national-embarrassment-are-back/