JAKARTA – Indonesia’s Environment Ministry on Monday denied accusations that forest fires in Sumatra and its portion of Borneo island, which have blanketed some of its cities with thick haze, have also affected air quality in neighbouring Malaysia.

Malaysia last Friday warned residents of high pollution levels in most areas on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the western Borneo region of Sarawak, blaming transboundary haze from Indonesia.

Indonesia’s Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar responded by saying Jakarta has not detected any travelling haze from Indonesia to neighbouring countries.

“We continue to follow up on any development, and there is no transboundary haze to Malaysia,” she said in a statement.

She added that at the moment, Indonesia is focusing on quelling forest fires in some provinces in Sumatra and Borneo with water bombing from helicopters.

As well as maritime boundaries, Malaysia shares a land border with Indonesia on Borneo island.

Malaysia has not filed a diplomatic complaint about the haze, a spokesperson for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Indonesia’s dry season in 2023 is its most severe since 2019 because of the impact of the El Nino weather pattern, which brings hot and dry conditions.

While forest fires are typically started by farmers to clear land for plantations, the Indonesian authorities say putting out fires in 2023 has been harder, owing to El Nino.

More than 267,900ha of forest has been burned so far in 2023, a bigger area than the total of 204,894ha for all of 2022, according to the Environment Ministry’s data.

This has brought haze into several cities in Sumatra and Borneo.

Some areas in Central Kalimantan in Borneo reported visibility of less than 10m, state news agency Antara reported.

The authorities ordered remote learning for students in Palembang and Jambi cities in southern Sumatra starting this week, because of the severity of pollution, local media reported. REUTERS