Indonesia is sending an additional 1,500 soldiers and six water-bombing helicopters to Borneo as wildfires that have scorched more than 200,000 hectares since January intensify, with fires between January and July surpassing the area burned during the 2019 and 2023 El Niño seasons. President Prabowo Subianto ordered three army battalions from outside Kalimantan to join roughly 12,880 personnel already deployed across West, Central, and South Kalimantan.
The government is drilling deep wells as surface water sources dwindle and has closed schools in Kubu Raya and Pontianak. Across the border, Malaysia's Sarawak state temporarily shut 108 schools on Aug. 20 as air pollution indices reached "very unhealthy" levels. Satellite data that day detected 1,487 hotspots across Kalimantan, concentrated in Central and West Kalimantan.
Lawmaker Daniel Johan has called for the fires to be declared a national disaster, while the national youth volunteer corps Karang Taruna dispatched personnel and supplies to five priority provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan.