Indonesia has been stepping up efforts to slow the spread of haze caused by forest and land fires across several provinces, which this month led to dozens of school closures, including in neighboring Malaysia.

Malaysia's national disaster management agency and its meteorological department were currently preparing schedules for cloud seeding operations in shared border locations, to be coordinated with the Indonesian military, Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Arthur Joseph Kurup said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters.

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Malaysia was also prepared to help Indonesia in extinguishing the fires, with any specific requests to be brought to cabinet for further action, Kurup said.

Amid the escalating land and forest fires, thick haze has covered most parts of Borneo, the island shared by Indonesia’s Kalimantan, East Malaysia and Brunei. Visibility has fallen in some areas to just 1 meter, disrupting road traffic, delaying flights and causing respiratory problems.

Read also: Malaysia, Brunei to raise cross-border haze issue at ASEAN

The Indonesian government has deployed aerial firefighting aircraft and conducted weather modification operations to contain the fires. But the thick smog continued to cover the island as of Monday, deteriorating air quality in Sarawak and other areas in Malaysia.

Sarawak has been worst hit by the haze. Six districts in Sarawak recorded unhealthy air pollution index (API) readings on Monday, according to data released by the environment department.

In Indonesia, thick haze has also covered Sumatra's Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra as authorities grapple with persistent blazes amid dry conditions that are expected to continue for weeks. In Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau, the administration instructed on Monday that all schools conduct classes online to avoid children’s exposure to haze.  

Unhealthy API levels were also recorded in eight other districts across four states on the Malaysian peninsula, which lies next to Sumatra, the API data showed.

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Kurup said the Indonesia and Malaysia would be escalating their firefighting and fire prevention programs ahead of national holidays in the coming weeks, including the Malaysia Day celebrations in Sarawak state on September 16.

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