Singapore's air quality hits unhealthy levels as Indonesian wildfires spread haze

Each year, Indonesia's dry season brings fire and smoke across Southeast Asia, but in September 2026, the haze arrived with a force not felt since 2019—blanketing all five regions of Singapore simultaneously and ranking the city-state among the world's ten most polluted places. The smoke, born from more than 9,000 wildfires recorded in Indonesia in August alone, does not pause at borders, drawing Kuala Lumpur into the same choking air. It is a reminder that in a densely interconnected region, the consequences of land and climate decisions made in one nation are breathed by millions in another.