Smog season has returned to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and the haze created by illegal fires has spread to neighboring Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Rains over the weekend helped douse some of the fires and clear the air in Pontianac and Polankaraya, the Borneo cities most affected, but the rainy season doesn’t start for another two months and more fires are likely. Flights to Pekanbaru, Sumatra were delayed by the smog. The Indonesian government blames small slash-and-burn farmers for setting the illegal blazes, but worse culprits are large timber companies that use fires to clear land that has been logged. Air quality throughout the region could deteriorate further over the next two months.
