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The Indonesian Health Ministry has documented 174,694 cases of acute respiratory infections across seven provinces impacted by forest and land fires between mid-August and September 21 according to Director of Environmental Health Then Suyanti. More than 40,363 of those cases involved children under five years old while the latest update placed active cases at 4,533 with the remainder having recovered. Then Suyanti detailed the figures during a press conference hosted by the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs on September 22 and urged protection for vulnerable populations including the elderly pregnant women and individuals with asthma or chronic lung conditions.
Ministry data shows the tally of wildfire-related respiratory illnesses more than doubled from 50,891 cases on September 1 to 113,336 by September 9 before climbing further in the following weeks. Exposure to pollutants such as PM2.5 in the toxic smog has driven increases in conditions ranging from mild coughs to bronchitis and pneumonia Then Suyanti explained in remarks reported across multiple outlets. The ministry has distributed masks oxygen concentrators and cylinders while establishing additional health monitoring in the affected regions of Riau Jambi South Sumatra and four Kalimantan provinces.
Indonesian authorities have mobilized more than 54,000 personnel along with aircraft for water bombing and cloud-seeding operations primarily on Borneo and Sumatra a government briefing indicated. Peatland fires which can smolder underground for extended periods have complicated suppression efforts despite the scale of the response according to officials. The Nusantara Atlas independent monitoring platform detected around 734,000 hotspots nationwide by mid-September a level more than 30 percent above the comparable period in 2019 one of the country’s worst fire years.
Since January fires have burned at least 895,657 hectares of land an expanse nearly six times the size of Greater London according to forest monitoring assessments. A combination of an exceptionally strong El Nino event climate change and persistent slash-and-burn practices for agriculture has exacerbated the dry-season blazes the Straits Times reported citing experts. The resulting haze has spread to neighboring Malaysia and Singapore degrading air quality to unhealthy levels and prompting school closures alongside rising hospital admissions in Indonesia.
National police have initiated 219 criminal investigations into the fires naming 162 suspects with some probes tracing potential involvement of plantation companies police official Mohammad Irhamni stated. President Prabowo Subianto directed authorities to examine rapid conversion of burned land for cultivation and proposed classifying deliberate fires as ecological terrorism during a cabinet session earlier in September. The actions build on lessons from the 2015 crisis which saw 2.6 million hectares burn and prompted regional agreements aimed at curbing transboundary haze.
The Health Ministry continues surveillance of air quality and medical supply availability while educating residents on reducing outdoor exposure during poor conditions Then Suyanti noted. A Singapore Institute of International Affairs assessment from earlier in the year had flagged medium risk for severe haze amid elevated commodity prices and ongoing deforestation trends in the region. Officials emphasized that sustained enforcement against illegal burning remains critical as the dry season extends into October.
