KUALA LUMPUR: Hundreds of forest fires in Indonesia have caused haze that has worsened air quality in parts of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur’s top environment official has said, a claim Jakarta denied on Saturday.

Outbreaks of smog-belching forest fires in 2019 caused Malaysia to say it would pressure Indonesia to combat the annual problem, which is often caused by blazes lit to clear agricultural land.

Malaysia’s Department of Environment director-general Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar said the fires were worsening air pollution on the country’s west coast and in Sarawak on the Malaysian part of Borneo island. “Overall air quality in the country shows deterioration,” he said in a statement issued on Friday.

“Forest fires that occur in the southern part of Sumatra and the central and southern parts of Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia have caused haze to cross borders,” he said.

The statement said satellite imagery showed 52 forest fire “hotspots” in Sumatra and 264 in Borneo, according to a report from the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), which tracks haze affecting Southeast Asia.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2023