Dozens of schools in Indonesia remained closed for a second consecutive day on Tuesday, as persistent forest fires ignited by an intense dry season, and potentially exacerbated by El Niño, continued to rage.
In the region of West Kalimantan on Borneo—the island Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei—the mayor of Pontianak, the capital city, mandated school closures. This decision came in response to the pervasive smoke drifting into the area from distant fires.
Public records indicate that Pontianak, home to approximately 660,000 residents, has tens of thousands of public school students, all impacted by this environmental crisis.
Mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono declared that children will continue with remote learning as long as the air quality remains compromised. The statement, however, did not specify the number of schools affected by the closures.
“The smoke’s presence is evident, particularly during the night and early morning, as a dense haze has enveloped Pontianak,” Kamtono noted.
On the island of Java, firefighters battled flames for a ninth day at a national park that has lost 900 hectares to an inferno that broke out on Monday last week.
The blaze at the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, a major tourist attraction closed to visitors since Saturday, is one of several fires that have drawn in nearly 50,000 firefighters countrywide.
Indonesia is forecast to experience an unusually tough dry season this year with a high risk for drought and wildfires due in part to the El Niño weather phenomenon, the BMKG weather agency has said.
More than 107,000 hectares of land have burnt countrywide so far this year.
Authorities insist that food stocks remain adequate.
Burnt area in East Java the size of 1,200 football fields
The fire at the Bromo park in East Java has consumed nearly 900 hectares by Tuesday morning.
This is equivalent to over 1,200 football fields and nearly 2 per cent of the total park area.
“We’re making our best effort and mobilising everything … to extinguish and wet-down the area,” local disaster official Satriyo Nurseno said.
“We hope that today we can put out the fire in all areas, then carry out soaking so that the fire does not reignite.”
Three water-bombing helicopters and fire trucks were providing support to about 200 firefighters, forest rangers, police and soldiers helping to put out the blaze.
According to the BNPB disaster agency, more than 48,000 personnel have been deployed to fight fires in six provinces.
Security minister Djamari Chaniago said on Monday Indonesia has deployed 43 helicopters and up to 15 fixed-wing planes for cloud seeding where needed.
The process involves spraying particles such as silver iodide and salt from aircraft to produce rainfall, but depends on clouds being present.
As Indonesia braces for the worst effects of El Niño, the BMKG said the average air temperature in July was 27C — higher than the 26.2C average.
It was the highest such jump for July since 1991.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure and rainfall patterns.
In India and Southeast Asia, it typically causes drier conditions.
The last El Niño helped make 2023 and 2024 the two hottest years globally on record.
The land lost to wildfires in Indonesia so far this year is double the area burnt in 2023.
Concerns for Australia’s bushfire season as El Niño intensifies
While an El Niño does not necessarily mean hotter and drier conditions for Australia, it does raise the likelihood.
And with the climate driver shaping up to be one of the strongest on record, experts are worried about what it could mean for Australia’s bushfire outlook.
Greg Mullins, the former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW, recently told SBS News there was “deep concern in all the fire agencies nationally”.
However, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecasters say there are signs that rain could disrupt the summer bushfire threat in some areas.
“That drier than average pattern that we’re seeing for September does break down for much of the country and we start seeing either above average rainfall being favoured or even a not-clear signal for a lot of the country,” BoM climatologist Zhi-Weng Chua said.