JAKARTA – September is usually the month when haze comes down to Selangor, Malaysia, where Evelyn Toh, 54, lives, but this year, she thinks the haze is “the worst” in recent years. The pollution makes Petailing Jaya in Selangor look like it is in misty highlands despite being located less than 100 meters above sea level.
“I was driving last week and I could see the car in front, but I cannot see the traffic light about 100 meters ahead,” Evelyn told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Aside from visibility concerns, the university lecturer was also concerned about the health impact from the toxic pollution, as she heard some friends had fallen sick from various respiratory illnesses at the moment.
Evelyn herself has suffered from itchy throat, nose and eyes, and she is taking care of her two elderly parents whose breathing is affected by the declining air quality.
“I sort of learned how to adapt to live with it already,” she said. “We try not to go out so often, but what to do? I have to work. But it does affect people.”
With haze from wildfires in Indonesia reaching neighboring regions such as Malaysia, pressure is growing on the Indonesian government and ASEAN to push for extra measures against transboundary haze, as toxic pollution raises health concerns among local populations.
Several regions in Malaysia have seen their air quality drop to unhealthy levels according to measurement by Swiss-based air monitoring company IQAir.
Nearly 900,000 hectares of land, the equivalent area of 16 Jakartas, had been burned throughout this year as of late August, according to independent forest monitoring network Nusantara Atlas. The widespread forest and peatland fires has caused haze to hit neighboring regions.
The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, located around 30 minutes from Petailing Jaya, scored 242 in the IQAir’s air quality index with 166 micrograms (μg) per cubic meter, higher than the safe 24-hour threshold recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) of 5 μg/m3. The score also put the city at the top of the most polluted global major cities.
Amid the rising health concerns, Malaysia-based Sunway Centre for Planetary Health (SCPH), issued a policy brief on Monday calling for more accountability from ASEAN in addressing the transboundary haze issue.
In the report, the think tank underlined health impacts from the toxic pollution affecting Indonesia and neighbors Malaysia and Singapore. It cited several estimates that projected hundreds of thousands of excess deaths, as well as millions of respiratory cases caused by fires during the 2015 and 2019 El Niño seasons due to the rise of the PM2.5 particulate that can cause various health issues when inhaled.
It called for ASEAN to use existing tools, such as the bloc’s Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP), which allows for states to request information on wildfires and haze to push for accountability, and the expansion of the ASEAN Transboundary Haze Pollution Control Fund that “could plausibly deter, compensate or pre-position a response” against huge financial losses from wildfires.
Speaking at the opening of the Global Tipping Points Conference 2026 at Sunway University in Petaling Jaya on Monday, SCPH executive director Jemilah Mahmood believed ASEAN could push for the necessary changes in addressing the haze problem. She drew parallels with the bloc’s action in delivering humanitarian aid during past disasters, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami that led to the adoption of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management.
“This climate change, the haze pollution is a major disaster. This is the catastrophe of our times,” Jemilah said.
Despite the scale of the blazes and their impact, the Indonesian government recently refused to declare the prolonged fires as a national disaster, a status that would enable deployment of more resources to mitigate the hazard.
Swetha Peteru, a senior scientist with Landscape Alliance, underlined the need to strengthen monitoring, evaluation and reporting frameworks under ASEAN’s transboundary haze agreement to improve accountability. The bloc also needs to push its other mechanisms, such as the ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy, to prevent peat fires from breaking out, as preventive measures against transboundary haze.
“But in this current El Nino period, ASEAN can mobilize regional cooperation by prioritizing the mainstreaming of the joint emergency-response procedures,” Swetha said. “Harmonized and agreed upon steps would ensure cross-border assistance reaches affected landscapes without delays.”
ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to discuss measures to tackle the transboundary haze during a meeting in November, according to bloc chair the Philippines as reported by Reuters.
Philippine foreign minister spokesperson Dominic Xavier Imperial said on Tuesday that haze is on the agenda for the minister’s meeting ahead of the ASEAN Summit. Malaysian foreign minister Mohamad Hasan said he would raise the haze issue as the bloc’s existing mechanisms to deal with natural disasters did not include haze.
ANN/The Jakarta Post