Malaysia has declared an emergency over smoke from Indonesia's fires

Malaysia's king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, approved an emergency on Friday in Serian, a town of about 90,000 people in Sarawak, on the Malaysian side of Borneo. The reason is the smoke drifting over from fires in Indonesia. Serian's air pollutant index reached 521, on a scale where anything above 100 counts as unhealthy and above 300 counts as hazardous. Kuching, the state capital, sat at 311. The South China Morning Post reports that Serian sits close to the border with Indonesian Kalimantan, where much of the burning is.

An emergency here is a legal switch, not a louder warning. Malaysian schools already close when the index passes 200. Once it passes 500, the government can order non-essential work and outdoor activity to stop, so shops, building sites and field work in the district can be told to shut. Sarawak officials named 500 as that line only a week ago, when readings were still in the 400s. Cloud seeding planes, which drop salt into clouds to try to squeeze rain out of them, were flying over Kuching on Thursday.

On the Indonesian side, police say they have now arrested 112 people suspected of starting fires in 10 provinces across Sumatra and Borneo, up from 72 in late August. Arrests do not put out a peat fire. Months of drought have dried the peat soil so deeply that it burns below the surface, out of reach of water dropped from the air, and it keeps producing smoke for weeks. A neighbouring government is now using emergency powers because of Indonesian smoke, which is a harder judgement than any complaint passed through diplomats.

Why it matters

If you live in West Kalimantan, the reading across the border is a fair guide to your own air, because the smoke passes your house first. For Indonesians who work or trade in Sarawak, an emergency can close the site you work on with little notice, so check the district's status before you travel and plan for lost days. Jakarta will meet Malaysian ministers with this on the table, and for now its answer is arrests rather than stopping the burning before it starts.