JAKARTA: Indonesia has sealed off plantations operated by 30 companies amid a row with Malaysia over forest fires that are spreading thick, noxious haze across Southeast Asia.
The plantation companies, including a Singapore-based company and four firms affiliated with Malaysian corporate groups, are under scrutiny as authorities consider decisions about possible punishment, said Sugeng Riyanto, the law enforcement director at the Forestry and Environment Ministry of Indonesia.
Nearly every year, Indonesian fires spread health-damaging haze across the country and into neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. The smog this year has drifted as far north as southern Thailand, where residents of Hat Yai have resorted to wearing face masks.
Air quality in Singapore deteriorated to “unhealthy” levels on Saturday for the first time in three years, data from the National Environment Agency (NEA) showed, threatening to deepen the regional dispute over the fires.
The 24-hour Pollution Standards Index, which the NEA uses as a benchmark, was in a range of 87-106 in the afternoon. A reading above 100 is considered unhealthy. This is the first time the 24-hour benchmark has breached 100 since August 2016, data shows.
Many people chose to stay indoors on Saturday as a grey haze shrouded the city-state.
Malaysia closed hundreds of schools and sent half a million face masks to Sarawak this week, after the smoke built up to unhealthy levels.
Air quality in Indonesian towns closest to the fires have risen to hazardous levels and on Wednesday thousands held mass Islamic prayers for rain.
The fires are often started by smallholders and plantation owners to clear land for planting.
Indonesia’s forestry and environment minister, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, told reporters on Friday that the government would prosecute a number of companies as a deterrent to setting fires.
The move came days after she disputed that the smoke was coming from Indonesia, noting that hotspots were also detected in Sarawak state in Malaysia.
Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, responded immediately, telling Indonesia “not to be in denial”. She cited data that showed that the haze affecting parts of Malaysia originated in Indonesia.
The head of Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, Dwikorita Karnawati, dismissed claims by Malaysia that haze from Indonesia has drifted into the neighbouring country for days. She said the haze began to enter the area above peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak state on Thursday morning.
She said the agency’s satellites and its Geohotspot analysis on Thursday detected 1,231 hotspots on Sumatra island and 1,865 on Borneo. It also detected 412 hotspots in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and 216 in Sabah.
Officials have said Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is planning to press Indonesian President Joko Widodo for urgent action to tackle the cross-border haze.
Many areas of Indonesia are prone to rapid burning because of the draining of swampy peatland forests for pulp wood and palm oil plantations.
Poor visibility caused by smoke had caused delays of several flights in Indonesia and Malaysia and prompted authorities to shut schools in some parts of the two countries this week.
Malaysia’s primary industries minister, Teresa Kok, expressed her concern over the action taken by Indonesian authorities against the land belonging to the subsidiaries of four major Malaysian-owned palm oil plantation companies.
“This is a very serious accusation indeed,” she said in a statement on Friday.
She said she would talk with her Indonesian counterpart and hopes to resolve the matter quickly and amicably.
The Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency said on Saturday that 99% of the hotspots were caused by deliberately set fires, leading to very poor air quality in six provinces with a combined population of more than 23 million. The provinces have declared a state of emergency.
The agency said 42 helicopters have dropped nearly 240 million litres of water and 160 tonnes of salt for cloud seeding as part of the firefighting efforts.
Indonesian authorities have deployed more than 9,000 people to fight the fires, which have razed more than 328,700 hectares of land across the country, with more than half in the provinces of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.
Tourists take a picture at the Skybox atop Kuala Lumpur Tower as the Malaysian capital is shrouded with haze on Friday. (AP Photo)