In short:
Fire pollution killed more than 3,000 people in Indonesia in September, according to a new report.
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pollution → kill → report
Worsening air quality due to forest and land fires in Indonesia affected the estimated death toll.
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quality → worsen → toll
The report argues the government needs to shift from wildfire response to the restoration of peatlands left fire-prone by extensive draining.
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government → argue → draining
Pollution from smoke emitted by months of wildfires across Indonesia caused an estimated 3,560 deaths in the vast South-East Asian archipelago in September, according to a new study.
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Pollution → emit → 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.
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Centre → inhale → Energy
"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.
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statement → worsen → Thursday
The CREA study estimated the number of deaths brought about by PM2.5 pollution in the short-term, meaning a matter of days.
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study → estimate → days
PM2.5 particles are small enough to penetrate the lungs or bloodstream and the World Health Organization has linked exposure to a higher risk of illness and premature death.
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Organization → penetrate → illness
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.
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report → estimate → east
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 of about 290 million people.
"
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it → look → people
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.
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report → breach → Borneo
More than 330,000 cases of acute respiratory infection have been recorded countrywide.
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cases → record → infection
'Predictable and avoidable'
Gripped by drought worsened by the El Niño 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.
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Atlas → grip → September
The government has not confirmed or rejected the number.
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government → confirm → number
The resulting haze has sent pollution levels soaring as far afield as Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and East Timor, clouding Indonesia's ties with its neighbours.
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levels → result → neighbours
Experts say the wildfires can be blamed in large part on slash-and-burn land-clearing practices, often by timber, palm oil or mining companies.
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wildfires → say → timber
For the island of Java, the most populated and home to the capital Jakarta, the CREA report said between 73 and 80 per cent of air pollution deaths, a total of 1,530 in September, were attributed to non-fire sources such as industry, vehicle emissions, and waste burning.
"These figures underscore the stark reality that non-fire air pollution sources are as dangerous as smoke from burning forests and peatlands,"it said.
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sources → say → forests
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.
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he → point → disaster
Agus pointed to budget cuts hampering the efforts of the BNPB national disaster management agency.
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Agus → point → agency
"Indonesia should be able to prepare for what is going to happen.
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what → prepare → ?
The fact that we are not prepared at all is purely a matter of lacking the will," Agus said.
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Agus → prepare → will
The CREA report argues the government needs to shift from a wildfire response to the restoration of peatlands left fire-prone by extensive draining.
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government → argue → draining
"This step must be accompanied by firm law enforcement against illegal land clearing through burning, as well as strengthened legal accountability for concession holders to prevent damage," it said.
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it → accompany → damage
The Aporia
