SINGAPORE: Pollution readings in Singapore reached their highest level this year on Wednesday while East Timor shut its schools for three days in response to intensifying smoke and haze from Indonesia's wildfires.
Singapore's 1-hour PM2.5 reading hit a high of 284 microgrammes per cubic metre in the western part of the island state, entering the National Environmental Agency's "very high" band for the first time during the current haze period.
The East Timor government said in a statement that it was suspending face-to-face learning activities for three days starting from Oct 15 "due to contamination by pollutant particles from wildfires in neighbouring regions or countries."
East Timor did not identify Indonesia by name, but it shares an island with a part of Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province, where a number of hotspots have been reported.
Indonesia has been battling its most intense wildfire season in 11 years, fuelled by El Nino-related dry weather conditions.
The haze has caused a spike in respiratory illnesses at home and a dramatic decline in air quality across the region, with several states in Malaysia also forced to shut down schools.
In October 2015, Indonesian wildfires brought PM2.5 levels in the west of Singapore up to a national record of 471 microgrammes per cubic metre.
Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto has ordered additional resources to be deployed to combat the wildfires.
"We are mobilising all our resources and capabilities," said Honi Havana, an official at the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, during a Wednesday press briefing.
He said Jakarta has deployed more than 69,000 firefighting personnel, up from around 44,000 in mid-September, and it was also testing new methods to put out fires more effectively using special chemicals.
Authorities have been struggling with peatland fires, which smoulder slowly beneath the surface and can re-emerge anytime, said disaster mitigation agency spokesperson Berton Panjaitan.
"We must recognise that the only way to resolve this is through sustained rainfall," he said.
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