Students in Indonesia protest toxic haze from forest and peatland fires

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health: More than 333,470 acute respiratory illnesses among residents in seven provinces since mid-August

Thousands of students across Indonesia have protested for days over the government’s response to toxic haze blanketing multiple cities and spreading across Southeast Asia in recent weeks. Demonstrations reached more than half a dozen Indonesian cities this week, including communities on Borneo where many of the fires are burning. In Bandung, Vincent Thomas, a student at Indonesia’s Universitas Padjadjaran, said: “In Indonesia, we’re so angry.” Thomas also said: “We want the officials responsible to be held accountable.”

On Friday, more than 500 protesters gathered outside the Central Kalimantan Governor’s Office in Palangkaraya, the provincial capital, demanding solutions to the haze. Some carried signs that read “haze emergency” and “If we burn, you burn with us!” Many demonstrators on Friday wore thick masks to protect themselves from the air pollution blanketing Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan, which was tinged orange by the haze. Volunteer firefighters extinguishing blazes around the city told The Associated Press they hoped rain would come soon.

Student and civil society groups had called for stronger action on the haze for months. Some asked President Prabowo Subianto to declare a national emergency and take more aggressive steps to prevent the agricultural practices blamed for fueling the blazes. Some student-led protests merged with ongoing demonstrations over Indonesia’s struggling economy.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Health reported that more than 333,470 residents had suffered acute respiratory illnesses across the seven affected provinces since mid-August. Thomas said: “We want the government to openly declare a national disaster emergency.” Thomas also said: “Not just regarding Kalimantan, but regarding forest fires across the entire country, in every part of Indonesia.”

The Associated Press reported that Indonesia’s haze is primarily caused by forest and peatland fires, often started to clear land for farming. Such fires are common during the dry season, which usually begins in April, but this year’s are the worst on record. Less rain during the wet season left Indonesia’s forests vulnerable to fire. Experts cited by The Associated Press blamed the conditions on extreme heat, climate change and an intensifying El Niño that may be the strongest in living memory. Syahdiva Moezbar, with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Jakarta, said: “The current haze crisis is a real symptom, a real example of how climate change affects our day-to-day lives.”

Air quality worsened in Singapore and Malaysia. IQAir ranked Singapore and Kuala Lumpur among the most polluted cities in the world this month, and The Associated Press reported that many considered the haze crisis the region’s worst in more than a decade. Singapore officials warned that air quality could deteriorate further and are taking legal action against seven companies in Indonesia that Singapore blames for causing the forest and peatland fires. Qiyun Woo, a Singaporean environmentalist, said: “For me, the part that does worry me is just the difficulty in getting N95 masks and air purifiers.” Woo also said: “You just can’t help but worry about your own health, especially when you might not have an air purifier.”

The haze has triggered public backlash from Singapore, Malaysia and others in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It has closed schools in East Timor and been detected in the Philippines. Jemilah Mahmood, executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, said the haze shows what happens when climate change is damaging environments. She said: “The lungs of a child in Pontianak or Johor Bahru depend on the health of a peat swamp hundreds of kilometers away.”

Slash-and-burn agricultural practices are common across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with burning seasons typically running from January to April. Regional efforts to tackle the issue have lagged. Mahmood said: “Crises like this test relationships, and the rhetoric this season has been unhelpful on all sides.” She added: “My worry is not a permanent rupture. It is that blame becomes a habit and gets in the way of the cooperation we need.”