Massive wildfires spreading across Indonesia amid a convergence of recent El Nino conditions and the dry season have led to a surge in respiratory patients, while also deteriorating air quality in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

According to Reuters, Bloomberg, and other outlets today (the 16th), the number of respiratory disease patients caused by wildfires on Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra islands surged from 50,891 on September 1 to 113,336 on September 9.

Widyawati, a spokesperson for the Indonesian Ministry of Health, explained that 12.5 million people have been exposed to smoke from wildfires across seven provinces on Borneo and Sumatra islands.

This is due to persistent dry weather as recent El Nino conditions in Indonesia overlap with the dry season.

El Nino is a phenomenon where sea surface temperatures near the equator become abnormally higher than usual, affecting overall global climate patterns, including temperature and precipitation.

It occurs on a 2- to 7-year cycle and typically lasts for about a year.

The Indonesian government stated that wildfires from January to July of this year have already burned 202,000 hectares of land (1 hectare equals 10,000 square meters), an area equivalent to three times the size of Seoul.

Local environmental groups estimated that an additional 600,000 hectares burned in August alone.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry's wildfire monitoring system, the number of high heat points detected last month exceeded 9,000, the highest for any single month since 2015.

More than 7,000 hot spots have been detected so far this month as well.

Hot spots refer to locations where satellites detect a rise in surface temperature, indicating potential fire risks.

Reuters noted that this year's wildfires are the most severe since 2015, driven by the "super El Nino" phenomenon.

During the entire year of 2015, a total of 2.6 million hectares burned due to wildfires in Indonesia, and nearly 1 million hectares burned in 2019 as well.

This year's damage scale is projected to surpass that of 2019.

The Indonesian Ministry of Forestry explained that the sharp increase in wildfires this year is the result of a combination of drought caused by El Nino and human-induced ignition.

The Indonesian Ministry of Health provided 1 million masks and hundreds of oxygen concentrators to the wildfire-affected regions, alongside deploying a large number of medical personnel.

As smoke from successive wildfires in Indonesia spread, air quality in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore has severely worsened.

Singapore's National Environment Agency recently stated that air quality reached unhealthy levels for the first time since September 2019.

Last week, Singapore's air quality was ranked among the top 10 most polluted in the world, with the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur also making the upper ranks.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) of Singapore stated that smoke plumes from wildfires on Borneo Island, where Indonesia's Kalimantan province is located, drifted toward Singapore alongside haze brought in from Indonesia's Sumatra Island due to shifts in wind direction.

Last month, worsening air quality in Malaysia also prompted the closure of 108 schools in the Serian district of Sarawak state.

Borneo Island, home to Sarawak state, is the third-largest island in the world and is divided among the territories of three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)