KUALA LUMPUR — A thick blanket of haze is once again spreading across parts of Malaysia as forest and land fires intensify in Indonesia, disrupting schools, raising health concerns and putting authorities across Southeast Asia on alert as dry conditions threaten to worsen the crisis.
The situation has become serious enough for the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) to activate Alert Level 3 — its highest regional haze alert — for southern ASEAN on August 26, after satellite monitoring detected widespread moderate-to-dense smoke over Kalimantan and Sumatra.
Malaysia is among the countries feeling the impact most directly.
On Friday, August 28, Air Pollutant Index readings in several locations in Sarawak and the Klang Valley exceeded 150, placing air quality firmly in Malaysia’s “unhealthy” category. Parts of Sarawak had already crossed the 200 mark earlier in August, reaching the “very unhealthy” range.
The haze has become more than an inconvenience.
Nearly 600 Sarawak schools were ordered closed
Sarawak authorities temporarily shut 591 primary and secondary schools across 10 education districts on August 20 and 21, affecting approximately 197,000 students, according to the Sarawak Education Department and Malaysian state news agency Bernama.
The Education Ministry has also directed schools in affected areas to stop outdoor activities when the API exceeds 100.
The impact has extended beyond classrooms. Sporting events have been moved, shortened or relocated, while Malaysians are increasingly changing daily routines to avoid prolonged exposure outdoors.
Malaysia’s Health Ministry has also reported a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses during the haze episode.
According to figures cited by CNA, reported upper respiratory tract infection cases increased from 1,637 to 3,674, while asthma cases increased from 61 to 219 over the comparison period. Clinics in Johor Bahru also reported seeing more patients with coughs, colds and other respiratory symptoms.
The fires are intensifying across Indonesia
The bigger concern lies across the border.
Indonesia has been battling forest and land fires across several provinces, particularly in Kalimantan and Sumatra, two regions whose smoke can be carried toward Malaysia and other neighbouring countries depending on prevailing winds.
Reuters reported that Indonesia identified six priority provinces for firefighting operations: Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. Authorities have deployed aircraft, helicopters and thousands of personnel for ground operations, aerial water bombing and weather-modification efforts.
Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry monitoring system recorded more than 1,250 hotspots during one week in August, with more than 900 in Kalimantan alone, Reuters reported. By August 21, authorities said 3,736 hotspots had been detected so far that month, compared with 758 in July.
Indonesia’s meteorological agency BMKG reported another sharp increase on August 25, including 352 high-confidence hotspots in Central Kalimantan, up from 113, while West Kalimantan increased from 92 to 140. Smoke was detected across numerous Indonesian provinces.
ASMC separately recorded 287 hotspots in Kalimantan on August 24 and 190 on August 25, along with dozens more in Sumatra. Satellite imagery showed smoke from West Kalimantan drifting northward across national boundaries.
What is actually causing the haze?
Dry weather and El Niño are making the fires much easier to spread — but Indonesian authorities say weather is not the original cause of most fires.
Indonesia’s disaster management chief Suharyanto told Reuters that El Niño and the prolonged dry season act as catalysts, while human activity remains the principal cause, whether deliberate or accidental. Examples include peatland burning and fires started during land-clearing activities.
Land clearing for agriculture has historically been closely associated with Southeast Asia’s recurring haze problem, while environmental groups have also warned that deforestation and drained peatlands make landscapes considerably more vulnerable to fire.
Once peatlands catch fire, the problem becomes especially difficult: fires can burn beneath the surface and produce enormous quantities of smoke.
This year, unusually dry conditions are increasing that danger.
BMKG said around 80 per cent of Indonesia was experiencing the dry season by late August, with August representing the seasonal peak across many areas.
ASEAN issues its strongest warning
The most worrying development may be what comes next.
ASMC warned that dry conditions are expected to continue across much of southern ASEAN. With El Niño conditions forecast to strengthen, authorities say the hotspot and smoke situation could escalate further and raise the risk of severe transboundary haze.
That warning marks a dramatic escalation from July.
On July 10, ASMC had activated only Alert Level 1, after detecting 48 and 45 hotspots across southern ASEAN on July 8 and 9 respectively. By late August, clusters involving hundreds of hotspots were producing moderate-to-dense smoke.
Malaysia and Indonesia turn to cloud seeding
Malaysia and Indonesia have stepped up cooperation as conditions deteriorate.
Indonesia has granted Malaysian agencies permission to enter Indonesian airspace for cloud-seeding operations, according to Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup.
Malaysia’s disaster management and meteorological agencies are coordinating proposed operations with Indonesian authorities, while Kuala Lumpur has also offered additional firefighting assistance if requested.
Indonesia is conducting its own weather-modification operations. BMKG said it was working with the Indonesian military, disaster agency and other authorities in East Kalimantan to induce rainfall and reduce wildfire risks.
But cloud seeding has limits: suitable clouds must already be present for the technique to work effectively.
National Day celebrations now face the haze
Malaysia’s haze emergency is also colliding with one of the country’s biggest public events.
The government has been reviewing whether the scale or location of its August 31 National Day celebrations in Putrajaya should be changed because of poor air quality.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said cancellation was not expected, but officials were evaluating measures including moving some activities indoors to protect participants, including about 1,500 secondary school students involved in performances.
Singapore is watching closely too
The threat is regional rather than confined to Malaysia.
Singapore’s National Environment Agency has warned that persistent fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan could send haze toward the city-state depending on wind direction. Singapore’s Haze Task Force, comprising 28 government agencies, has said it is prepared to activate response measures should air quality enter the unhealthy range.
Regional monitoring continued to warn on August 27 that haze could escalate in areas facing prolonged dry weather.
For Malaysia, Indonesia and their neighbours, that means the haze currently obscuring skylines and disrupting schools may not yet represent the peak of the 2026 season.
With the region still moving through its dry period and El Niño strengthening the conditions that allow fires to spread, the critical question is no longer simply when the haze will clear — but how much worse it could become before sustained rain finally arrives.
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