A thick layer of toxic smoke hangs over western Indonesia. On social media, residents of Palangkaraya, on Kalimantan, share images of their city shrouded in an orange blanket. People on the streets wear face masks, some even walk around with gas masks.
Nearly 2 million hectares of nature have already burned this year in Indonesia. The fires started in June, are unimaginably large, and smoke clouds have turned a significant part of Southeast Asia 'blue'. Emergency services have been trying for months to tame the flames, but without success. Only the monsoon rains can extinguish the wildfires, and that may still take some time.
"We think it will remain dry for a few more weeks," says wildfire professor Guido van der Werf from Wageningen University. He expects heavy rains somewhere in November or perhaps only in December. "Then it will stop. The peat fires will smolder for a few more weeks, but then the major burning stops."
The current fires in Indonesia are entirely related to El Niño. Due to this weather phenomenon, the trade winds, which normally blow east to west over the equator, change. This has major consequences for rainfall in Indonesia. This year there is a historically strong El Niño, fairly comparable or even stronger than that of 1997-1998.
"Normally, air comes from the Pacific Ocean towards Indonesia. So it is quite humid," Van der Werf continues. "Because of that, it rains a lot in Indonesia. During El Niño, that trade wind actually stops. That means the moist air is no longer supplied, and therefore it remains dry for a very long time in Indonesia."
That dryness provides ideal conditions for massive fires. Fires are common in Indonesia around this time of year. Farmers burn patches of land bare to clear the ground for agriculture. Originally a traditional method of land management for small farmers.
Only now that it is so dry, the fires spread to, for example, the adjacent forest. The raging fires are no longer controllable.
Van der Werf: "You have tropical forest. People want to get rid of it, and the cheapest way is to set it on fire. We see fire as a danger, but there fire is a means to deforest." At the same time, the farmers also realize that the consequences are very large. "Those farmers are in a double bind. On the one hand, they need it as a tool to deforest. On the other hand, they also see how the population suffers from it."
Not only farmers use fire. Slash-and-burn, as it is called, is also widely used by large palm oil companies to clear land for new plantations. It is officially prohibited, but enforcement is lacking.
Toxic blanket
The fires are a problem, the smoke they produce an equally big problem. Air traffic is disrupted, schools are closed, and in Makassar hundreds of students took to the streets because they want the government to do more. Not only in Indonesia is there dissatisfaction about this. Singapore and Malaysia have been in the smoke for months, to the great anger of neighboring countries, who want the Indonesian government to intervene. Under pressure from protests at home and abroad, some people and companies have been charged with causing the fires.
"These are very large concentrations of smoke. It is very bad for people's health," explains professor Van der Werf. "Your eyes water, you get nauseous." He himself noticed this years ago during fieldwork in Indonesia. At that time, he could not see across the street because of the density of the smoke. "We could leave then, but the local population is stuck in it for months."
The air quality over Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Borneo is now in the dangerous category. Singapore has been the city with the worst air quality in the world several times in recent weeks. In Indonesia alone, about 300,000 people have reported respiratory infections in recent weeks.
The fires bring the region back to 2015, when nearly 3 million hectares of nature burned. Although there is little that can be done against the fires in the short term, measures can certainly be taken in the long term. "Many new rules have been introduced since 2015," says Van der Werf. "That legislation is not yet very effective, but more can still be done."
Rules and enforcement will not stop the current fires. Only the monsoon can do that. For now, Indonesians and their neighbors can do nothing but wait for the rain to come.