Why haze has Southeast Asia in a chokehold

You're listening to a CNA Podcast.

Imagine fighting a fire, putting it out, driving an hour to refill your water tank, only to return and find the same ground burning again.

That's the challenge firefighters in Indonesia have been facing.

Here's one what a local official in West Kalimantan described it.

While we're spraying, the water tanker runs out of water and has to go back down to the Kapwas River to refill.

That can take about an hour.

During that one-hour gap, the area we already sprayed can catch fire again.

That's the challenge we face, so we make no progress.

We're stuck.

In fact, the fire can spread faster than we can contain it.

And peat makes these fires particularly nasty.

Now, it's basically layers of decayed vegetation on the ground.

When it dries out, the ground itself can catch fire, smouldering underground even after the flames above are gone.

Now, Indonesia is battling fires.

Malaysia has fires of its own.

And the smoke does not need a passport.

It travels wherever and whenever it wants.

So, after years of trying to prevent and fight these fires, are we still relying on rain to finish the job? I'm Genevieve Wu.

Joining me are CNA Senior Correspondents Saiful Barre-Isma in Jakarta, Melissa Goh in Kuala Lumpur, who have been on the ground tracking the efforts to stamp out these fires.

Saiful, let's start with your experience.

You were in West Kalimantan.

You met up with the firefighters.

How bad is it? And what makes these fires so incredibly difficult to put out?

You're listening to a CNA Podcast.

Imagine fighting a fire, putting it out, driving an hour to refill your water tank, only to return and find the same ground burning again.

That's the challenge firefighters in Indonesia have been facing.

Here's one what a local official in West Kalimantan described it.

While we're spraying, the water tanker runs out of water and has to go back down to the Kapwas River to refill.

That can take about an hour.

During that one-hour gap, the area we already sprayed can catch fire again.

That's the challenge we face, so we make no progress.

We're stuck.

In fact, the fire can spread faster than we can contain it.

And peat makes these fires particularly nasty.

Now, it's basically layers of decayed vegetation on the ground.

When it dries out, the ground itself can catch fire, smouldering underground even after the flames above are gone.

Now, Indonesia is battling fires.

Malaysia has fires of its own.

And the smoke does not need a passport.

It travels wherever and whenever it wants.

So, after years of trying to prevent and fight these fires, are we still relying on rain to finish the job? I'm Genevieve Wu.

Joining me are CNA Senior Correspondents Saiful Barre-Isma in Jakarta, Melissa Goh in Kuala Lumpur, who have been on the ground tracking the efforts to stamp out these fires.

Saiful, let's start with your experience.

You were in West Kalimantan.

You met up with the firefighters.

How bad is it? And what makes these fires so incredibly difficult to put out?