Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across the country caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast archipelago in September, according to a new study.
The same month, about 57.8 million people in Indonesia were inhaling unhealthy to hazardous air, said the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Helsinki-based think tank.
“Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia pushed the estimated death toll to 3,560 cases in September 2026, a twofold increase from the August estimate,” said a CREA statement on Thursday.
The CREA study estimated the number of deaths brought about by PM2.5 pollution in the short-term, meaning a matter of days.
Most estimated deaths occurred on Indonesia’s part of Borneo island as well as on Java and Sumatra islands and in the country’s east, said the report.
The researchers also looked at non-fire pollution from urban power generation, industry, and transportation, and found it had caused a further 1,750 deaths in September for a total of 5,310 in the country.
“In September alone, exposure levels breached the WHO annual PM2.5 threshold ... by over seven times nationally, 10 times in Sumatra, and an alarming 24 times in Kalimantan” in Borneo, said the report.
More than 330,000 cases of acute respiratory infection have been recorded countrywide.
Gripped by drought worsened by the El Nino weather phenomenon, Indonesia has for months battled wildfires that deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas says have consumed more than 1.9 million hectares in the nine months to September.
The government has not confirmed or rejected the number.
In the report, the CEO of Landscape Indonesia consultancy, Agus Sari, pointed to the government’s “weak preparedness” for what he described as a “predictable and avoidable” disaster.
Agus pointed to budget cuts hampering the efforts of the BNPB national disaster management agency.
“Indonesia should be able to prepare for what is going to happen,” he said.
“The fact that we are not prepared at all is purely a matter of lacking the will.” — AFP
