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View all search resultsFires and cross-border haze: What can still be done
Southeast Asia’s latest haze crisis was entirely foreseeable. As millions choke beneath toxic skies, halting the blazes today must come before the inevitable, unsparing reckoning tomorrow.
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Cars head to a tollgate in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 9, 2026, a residential building in the distance obscured by thick haze from wildfires in Kalimantan and Sumatra. (AFP/Arif Kartono)
T
he haze has returned with alarming severity. In parts of Central Kalimantan, the air pollutant standards index (ISPU) breached 4,000 this week, more than 13 times the hazardous threshold, while provinces across Sumatra recorded levels exceeding 2,200.
Downwind, Singapore and parts of Malaysia registered unhealthy air quality, while elevated readings in Metro Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and southern Thailand during September have confirmed that haze pollution is once again choking broad swaths of Southeast Asia.
This crisis was entirely foreseeable. With earlier, more concerted intervention, its scale could have been substantially mitigated.
In June, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) issued a “red” alert in its Haze Outlook 2026, signaling acute risk. Concurrently, the World Resources Institute’s Global Nature Watch platform provided continuous fire alerts and vegetative disturbance data via Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite tracking.
Compounded by long-standing warnings of severe El Nino-induced droughts, these indicators should have served as an unmistakable call to action for regional governments, plantation operators and forestry conglomerates alike.
While fire preparedness has received significant investment, implementation remains uneven and preemptive safeguards have failed to contain the outbreak. For now, frontline efforts must concentrate on aggressive fire suppression while closing off opportunities for new blazes to ignite.
Citizens across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei have ample reason to be furious.
