Smoke from Forest Fires in Sumatra visibility in Malaysia

For many years, Indonesia has faced forest fires during the dry season (May-September) which causes the choking haze in Kalimantan/ Borneo and Sumatra. Although the government has outlawed land-clearing by fire for agriculture, Indonesian farmers are still doing it as the enforcement of the law is still weak.

The Malaysian government has offered help to curb forest fires as the air in their region as well as in Singapore is greatly affected by the haze. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak explained that they have special aeroplanes that will be used to carry out water bombing, as quoted by the Sunday Star.

Although this is a regular occurance during dry season in the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, it has recently worsen over the last decade as timber and plantation firms are the cause of deliberate land-clearing by fire. The worst haze occurred in 1997 and 1998 when El Nino led to major fires and the smoke spread to Singapore, Malaysia and the southern part of Thailand.