Indonesia wildfire smoke caused 3,560 deaths, CREA says

Smoke pollution from months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in September, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said in a new study.

The Helsinki-based think tank said about 57.8 million people in Indonesia inhaled unhealthy to hazardous air that month. It said the estimated death toll from fire-related PM2.5 pollution was twice its August estimate.

CREA said most estimated fire-smoke deaths occurred in Indonesia's part of Borneo, as well as on Java and Sumatra and in the country's east. It also estimated that non-fire pollution from power generation, industry and transport caused a further 1,750 deaths in September, bringing the total estimated air pollution deaths to 5,310.

The report said national exposure levels in September were more than seven times the World Health Organization annual PM2.5 threshold, rising to 10 times in Sumatra and 24 times in Kalimantan. More than 330,000 acute respiratory infection cases have been recorded countrywide.

Indonesia has battled months of wildfires during a drought worsened by El Nino. Deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas said fires consumed more than 1.9 million hectares in the nine months to September, a figure the government has not confirmed or rejected.

The haze has raised pollution levels in neighbouring Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and East Timor.

Agus Sari, chief executive of Landscape Indonesia, said weak preparedness had worsened a predictable disaster and pointed to budget cuts affecting the national disaster management agency. CREA called for peatland restoration, stronger enforcement against illegal land clearing by burning and stricter emissions standards in areas facing non-fire pollution.

Indonesia's government defended its response, saying more than 72,000 people had been deployed in cloud-seeding and firefighting operations, more than 2,100 doctors and health workers had been activated in hard-hit areas and 5.3 million masks had been distributed.