Air quality across Singapore reaches unhealthy levels from Indonesian wildfires

Singapore was shrouded in haze on Tuesday, with smoke from wildfires in neighbouring Indonesia raising island-wide pollution to levels that pose a health risk.

All five regions of the city state recorded unhealthy air quality levels, the first time that has happened since September 2019, according to the National Environment Agency.

Singapore’s air currently ranks among the 10 most polluted cities in the world, according to IQAir data, with the capitals of Malaysia and Indonesia also among the top spots.

Indonesia often battles wildfires during its annual dry season, but hotspots this year have been higher than normal. There were more than 9,000 recorded in August, the most for the month in data going back to 2015, and more than 7,000 have been recorded so far in September, according to the forestry ministry’s fire-monitoring platform SiPongi.