Record Haze in Southeast Asia

The 2015 Southeast Asian haze is an air pollution crisis affecting several countries in Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Indonesia (especially its islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan), Malaysia, Singapore, Southern Thailand, and Vietnam, and possibly Cambodia and Central Philippines.

The haze has affected Indonesia from at least late June, eventually turning into an international problem for other countries from September. It is the latest occurrence of the Southeast Asian haze, a long-term issue that occurs in varying intensity during every dry season in the region. It is caused by forest fires resulting from illegal slash-and-burn practices, principally on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, which can then spread quickly in the dry season.

On 4 September 2015, the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management stated that six Indonesian provinces had declared a state of emergency due to the haze; they were Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. On 14 September, a state of emergency was again declared in Riau, this time by the Indonesian government.  Thousands of residents of Pekanbaru, Riau's capital, fled to the nearby cities of Medan and Padang.  In late September, the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) of Indonesia hit a record high of 2,300, recorded in the province of Central Kalimantan.  More than 28 million people in Indonesia alone are affected by the crisis, and more than 140,000 reported respiratory illness.

The Indonesian government has estimated that the haze crisis will cost it between 300 to 475 trillion rupiah (up to S$47 billion) to mitigate.  School closures due to the haze have been implemented in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; this affected nearly four million students in Malaysia alone  Among the events disrupted or even cancelled due to the haze were the 2015 FINA Swimming World Cup in Singapore and the Kuala Lumpur Marathon in Malaysia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Southeast_Asian_haze