Can Indonesia stop SE Asia’s annual smoke haze?

Haze wafting across borders in South East Asia is an annual problem, so why can’t the countries responsible stop it happening?

The haze is primarily caused by farmers and landowners slashing and burning plots of land - a relatively cheap and fast way of preparing a field for crops.

This year, Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto is talking tough towards those responsible for the fires, pledging to revoke permits for firms that order land clearing with fire.

But that’s done little to stop the haze, which is also caused by farmers in neighbouring Malaysia.

The smoke has engulfed neighbouring countries including Brunei, Singapore and even the Philippines capital Manila, around 2,000 kilometres away from the fires.

Long term, prolonged exposure to high levels of PM2.5 - tiny particulate matter released into the air through smoke haze, can cause a range of serious health problems.

Singapore's National Environment Agency states that among healthy individuals, short term exposure is more likely to cause self-resolving problems, such as eye, nose and throat irritation.

In this episode of Asia Specific podcast, host Mariko Oi speaks to Joel Aik, an environmental epidimiologist from Duke-NUS Medical school, and Astudestra Ajengrastri, a journalist with the BBC World Service in Jakarta.

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