Indonesia to disperse dry ice over South Sumatra as wildfire haze spreads

Tens of thousands seek respiratory treatment as haze reaches neighboring nations

Coordinating Security Minister Dudung Abdurachman told state news agency Antara that “this trial of dry ice dispersal is being conducted under the president’s direct instruction to help tackle the haze in South Sumatra” and that dry ice would be dropped on the province of South Sumatra on Thursday. “We will first observe the results, and if effective, there is a possibility that this method could be implemented in other regions,” Abdurachman said. Separately, a Cessna aircraft will reportedly disperse 1.5 tons of dry ice over the South Sumatran city of Palembang on Thursday, in a move the government hopes will ease the smoke and improve air quality and visibility.

The dry ice technique was first deployed in the 1940s to promote ice formation in clouds, Bloomberg reported. But Rick McRae, an adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales’ bushfire research group, said the approach is likely to provide only local, temporary relief. “It’s got some potential for local relief that might work for a while,” McRae said. “Weather systems are all moving from east to west. So if you’re in a town under that and you clear the smoke, there’s gonna be more blowing all the time,” he said. “It’s not going to be simple and it’s not going to be a permanent fix in any way.”

Indonesia has tried other measures this fire season, including cloud seeding, water bombing and deploying army personnel. President Prabowo Subianto has ordered firefighting efforts stepped up and called for a crackdown on those suspected of starting fires.

The 2026 fire season has been intensified by this year’s “godzilla” El Niño and the continued practice of “slash and burn” to clear land for crops such as palm oil. Since January, almost 900,000 hectares have burned across Indonesia, which officials describe as the worst fire season in more than a decade.

In the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan on Wednesday, the ISPU air pollution index exceeded 1,200 — four times the “hazardous” level of 300 — according to environment ministry data. Thick haze blanketed the provincial capital of Palangka Raya, cutting visibility for motorists to a minimum.

For months, millions of Indonesians have been subject to thick smoke and an apocalyptic tangerine haze. Tens of thousands of people have sought treatment for respiratory illness linked to the haze. Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit last week accusing the government of “gross negligence” in responding to the fires.

The haze has drifted into Singapore, Malaysia and as far afield as the Philippines. Air quality has also plummeted across neighbouring countries, shuttering schools, grounding flights and driving a spike in respiratory illness. In the past week, the financial hub of Singapore was listed among the most polluted cities globally, with Kuala Lumpur, also deeply affected, at number two. Singapore has rolled out subsidies for haze-related medical treatment starting Monday — a measure last activated in 2015 when similar blazes occurred — and begun distributing N95 masks to eligible residents.

Timor-Leste has said it would shut schools nationwide for three days from Thursday and urged families to keep children indoors or to use “respiratory protection” if going outside.

The fires have been hardest to combat in peatland areas, which can burn for weeks underground and resist standard firefighting techniques. “As time goes by and climate change kicks in, I think it could become a global problem, not just the fix that one country needs to find,” McRae said. “There’s a lot of interconnectedness on a global scale.”