PONTIANAK, Sept 29 — Welcome rain has brought relief to residents of Indonesia’s Pontianak city after weeks of exposure to a cloying, toxic haze given off by rampant wildfires on Borneo island.

Fires have torn through vast swathes of peat and forest areas on Borneo and nearby Sumatra island, with the resulting haze drifting also to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.

The thick smog had limited outdoor activities in Pontianak, a city of about 700,000 people, with schools forced to shutter and thousands of respiratory cases recorded in the region since last month, according to officials.

Rains in recent days have brought a welcome respite, said homemaker Lilis Suryani, who has been worrying about the effects of the haze on her children’s health.

“After the rain, I immediately felt the difference. The air was better, and the visibility was clearer,” the 43-year-old told AFP.

University student Uray Rosa Febrianti, 23, said that “the rain means a lot... not only to cool the air, but also to give hope that the situation is beginning to improve”.

“I see it as a gift from God.”

Indonesia has deployed firefighters assisted by volunteers across affected areas, and used cloud-seeding and water-bombing, with limited success.

The level of PM2.5 pollution in Pontianak was still more than 23 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit at one point today, according to IQAir, a Switzerland-based monitor.

Earlier this month, levels of PM2.5 in the city were over 100 times the recommended cap.

PM2.5 particles are so small they can enter deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream, with potentially dire consequences for health.

Indonesia regularly battles wildfires during the dry season, which in Borneo typically peaks between July and September.

The fires have intensified this year in part because of the El Nino weather phenomenon, set to be one of the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago.

El Nino typically brings severe drought to Indonesia.

Experts have also pointed to slash-and-burn land-clearing practices that have changed the naturally fire-resistant landscape. — AFP

SEPTEMBER 26 — The haze is back. The acrid smell of burning peat hangs in the air, skies are tinged an apocalyptic orange, and the familiar rhythm of life in Sarawak — and indeed, across Malaysia — has been disrupted. Schools close, offices slow down, and the economic machinery grinds to a halt. But this time, as we reach for our face masks, we are running out of scapegoats.

For decades, the narrative was convenient and comfortable. We blamed the smallholders. We pointed fingers at the slash-and-burn farmers in Kalimantan and Sumatra, painting them as the ecological villains of the piece. It was a tidy story: irresponsible agriculture versus responsible citizens. But the current evidence no longer supports that convenient fiction.

The fires are raging, yes. But they are raging in a landscape that has been fundamentally altered by a changing climate. The peatlands are drier than ever, the dry season is longer and more unforgiving, and the once-predictable monsoon patterns are now erratic. You cannot blame a farmer for a fire that is exacerbated by extreme drought — a drought that has its origins not in a farmer’s torch, but in the overheated machinery of our global civilisation.

Let us not kid ourselves. The smoke drifting over Borneo is not a local problem; it is a global snapshot. The EU is battling unprecedented summer infernos that consume entire towns. The US West Coast is a tinderbox, with wildfire seasons that no longer end. Australia’s bushfires have become so catastrophic that they now generate their own weather systems. We are all living in the same burning house; it is just that in this part of the world, the fire next door is blowing smoke directly into our lungs.

The economic implications of the haze are staggering. Beyond the immediate disruption to schools and offices, there is the uncalculated cost of lost productivity, the burden on healthcare systems treating respiratory illnesses, and the damage to tourism and aviation. But these are merely symptoms. The disease is our collective inertia.

We have been ignoring the evidence presented by world climate scientists for too long. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been issuing increasingly desperate warnings for three decades. Yet, we treat these reports as academic curiosities rather than survival manuals. We make promises at international summits, only to watch emissions rise. We set targets for 2050, while the fires burn in 2026.

For the Asean region, this means we must stop viewing climate action as a “Western agenda.” The haze is our daily reminder that climate change is local. We must demand that our governments prioritise renewable energy not just for the sake of the global environment, but for the sake of our children’s ability to attend school without wearing an N95 mask. We must push for aggressive peatland restoration and moratoriums on deforestation that are actually enforced, not just announced.

But equally, we must hold the developed nations accountable. Climate justice demands that those who have emitted the most for the longest time provide the finance and technology for developing nations to leapfrog the fossil fuel era.

We are at a precipice. The haze is not just an environmental event; it is a psychological one. It induces a sense of hopelessness, a feeling that the problem is too big for any of us to solve. But despair is a luxury we cannot afford. The only antidote to the anxiety of the haze is action.

Let COP31 be the reckoning. Let it be the forum where we finally admit that the farmers are not the enemy; the enemy is our own inability to change. The world should take action, but more importantly, we should take action. Because if we wait for someone else to clear the air, we will all suffocate waiting. The time for pointing fingers is over. The time for rolling up our sleeves is now.  

* Professor Datuk Dr Ahmad Ibrahim is affiliated with the Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy Studies at UCSI University and is an Adjunct Professor at the Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies, Universiti Malaya. He can be reached at Alamat emel ini dilindungi dari Spambot. Anda perlu hidupkan JavaScript untuk melihatnya..  

** This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hujan lebat serta ribut petir petang tadi mengakibatkan beberapa kawasan di sekitar Lembah Klang dilanda banjir kilat.

Berdasarkan tinjauan menerusi perkongsian orang awam di media sosial, antara kawasan utama yang terjejas akibat limpahan air termasuk sekitar pusat bandar Kuala Lumpur, Bangsar, Damansara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), Segambut, dan Kajang.

Selain itu, kejadian sama turut dilaporkan melanda beberapa kawasan di bahagian selatan Selangor meliputi Bangi, Bandar Seri Putra, dan Bukit Mahkota, serta laluan utama menghala ke Nilai 3.

Kejadian banjir kilat berkenaan menyebabkan beberapa jalan raya ditenggelami air, sekali gus mengakibatkan kesesakan lalu lintas yang teruk, terutamanya di laluan sekitar Jalan Bukit Pantai, Universiti Malaya, Jalan Damansara, Segambut, dan jalan antara Bukit Mahkota ke Nilai 3.

Maklumat lanjut serta pengesahan daripada pihak berkuasa berhubung tahap kerosakan dan penutupan jalan akibat insiden banjir kilat berkenaan sedang diperoleh.

BANGKOK – Pihak berkuasa mengisytiharkan bencana di semua 50 daerah di ibu negara Thailand, Bangkok semalam selepas hujan berterusan menyebabkan banjir kilat.

Pengisytiharan yang memberi kuasa kepada organisasi tempatan untuk mengambil tindakan susulan itu dibuat selepas Gabenor Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt berkata, hampir 300 mi­limeter hujan turun sejak Khamis lalu.

“Air terus bertakung. Sukar untuk keluar sekarang. Banjir kini di paras pinggang saya,”

“Saya tidak boleh ke mana-mana. Saya telah menutup kedai selama dua hari,” kata peniaga yang tinggal berhampiran terusan di utara pusat bandar Bangkok, Somkid Pheuk-ngam, 67, kepada AFP.

“Walaupun kawasan saya kerap dilanda banjir, kali ini lebih teruk berbanding banjir pada 2011,” tambahnya.

Hujan yang turun hampir tanpa henti sejak Khamis lalu menenggelamkan jalan-jalan raya dan mengakibatkan banyak terusan di Bangkok melimpah. Wartawan AFP berkata, banyak rumah dan restoran di sepanjang terusan telah dinaiki air.

Chadchart memberitahu, timur bandar raya itu adalah yang paling teruk terjejas dan memberi amaran, lebih banyak hujan diramalkan turun.

“Kami sedang cuba menge­pam keluar air, tetapi air di dalam terusan sudah penuh. Kawasan berisiko adalah kejiranan yang terletak berhampiran dengan terusan.

Setiap terusan kini sudah penuh,” katanya di laman sosial sambil menggesa penduduk supaya memindahkan kereta mereka ke kawasan lebih tinggi.

Beliau juga meminta pesakit terlantar yang bergantung kepada mesin perubatan untuk mempertimbangkan tempat tinggal sementara di hospital.

Banjir meluas di seluruh Thailand pada tahun 2011 telah mengorbankan lebih 500 orang dan mengakibatkan berjuta-juta kediaman rosak. – AFP