Worsening air quality, haze: Malaysia, Indonesia need to fix the water, not just fight the fire, says expert

Associate Professor Dr Helena Muhamad Varkkey says keeping converted peatlands sufficiently wet can help reduce the risk of fires and haze.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s recurring haze problem may not be solved simply by putting out fires or identifying who started them.

Associate Professor Dr Helena Muhamad Varkkey said better water management in converted peatlands, improved water-sharing arrangements and land swaps to protect pristine peat ecosystems should be at the centre of efforts to tackle the crisis, which has been an ongoing problem for more than three decades.

An Associate Professor of Political Ecology at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, Universiti Malaya, Helena’s areas of expertise include the politics and governance of transboundary haze in Southeast Asia, palm oil sustainability and climate change.

Her recommendations come as Malaysia continues to grapple with prolonged haze, with the Health Ministry reporting that 17 monitoring stations recorded “unhealthy” API readings on Wednesday, down from 31 the previous day. Haze remained a concern in several areas, particularly Sarawak.

Health surveillance has also recorded a sharp rise in respiratory illnesses, with acute respiratory tract infection cases increasing by 124.4 per cent and asthma cases by 259 per cent between the two reporting weeks. The ministry has advised vulnerable groups to limit outdoor activities and avoid strenuous exercise.

But while authorities continue to monitor the immediate health impact of the haze, Helena said preventing recurring episodes requires a longer-term look at how peatlands and water resources are managed.

“Better water management in converted peatlands, with requirements for a minimum water level so that the peat does not dry out. This is already a law in Indonesia,” said Helena.

Keeping converted peatlands sufficiently wet can help reduce the risk of fires taking hold, particularly during prolonged dry periods.

She said water management needed to be treated as a key part of fire prevention, rather than something considered only after fires have started.

“Improved water-sharing arrangements between concessions and surrounding communal farmlands, so that water does not get held back in certain areas, resulting in other areas getting dry,” said Helena, who specialises in Southeast Asian environmental politics.

Helena’s third recommendation looks further upstream at land-use decisions.

“Land swap arrangements for peat that has been licensed, but not yet drained or cleared, so that no further pristine peat ecosystems are damaged,” said Helena, who is the first Malaysian academic appointed to the prestigious Prince Claus Chair in Equity and Development at Erasmus University Rotterdam, serving a two-year term from September 2025.

The proposal would shift the focus from managing already degraded peatlands to preventing further damage to pristine ecosystems in the first place.

Yet Helena cautioned against allowing the haze conversation to become a blame game.

“This usually plays out at the diplomatic level, at press conferences … so this is what gets reported in the media. These conversations tend to happen when the haze is actively happening, so it is understandable,” she said.

“But the conversation about the system is important, and this should happen year-round, not only in crisis mode when everyone is just looking for someone to blame and is not in the state of mind to understand.”

That systems-based conversation, she argued, needs to continue even when the haze has disappeared from the headlines.

The question of accountability is also complicated by the fact that not every fire can be traced to someone deliberately setting it.

“Enforcement is always a problem in Malaysia and Indonesia. Laws in both countries, but especially Indonesia, are strong and have been strengthened in recent years. But enforcement tends to be complicated by things like corruption and patronage, which is a difficult system to break,” Helena said.

“Even though there have been more cases of companies being successfully prosecuted, court cases are still sometimes dismissed, or arrests dropped.

“There is also the issue of assigning responsibility. While there are fewer intentionally set fires nowadays due to tougher laws and higher public awareness, sometimes bad land and water management can still indirectly increase fire risk.”

As Malaysia confronts another prolonged haze episode, the challenge is therefore not simply to put out fires or identify who started them, but to reduce the conditions that allow fires to occur in the first place.