Malaysian authorities have ordered the closure of schools in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and various other parts of the country on Friday due to hazardous haze drifting from ongoing forest fires in neighboring Indonesia.
The smoke has driven air quality in the Malaysian capital to “unhealthy” levels, a status that led Swiss monitoring organization IQAir to rank Kuala Lumpur as the world’s second most polluted city, trailing only Singapore.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek directed state education departments and district offices to monitor conditions closely and take immediate action when necessary. She specified which schools would undergo full closures or partial operations across five states and two federal territories. Fadhlina also promised that future school closures would be announced in advance to give parents adequate preparation time.
Kuala Lumpur recorded an Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 170 on Friday. Under guidelines established by Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, school closures are mandatory whenever API readings reach 150 or higher. Readings exceeding 200 are classified as very unhealthy, while levels above 300 are considered hazardous. An index above 500 triggers a local emergency declaration.
The capital is located approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) from Indonesia, where a surge of forest fires began in August and has since impacted millions of residents. Indonesian firefighters have been deployed to combat peatland blazes in areas such as Limbung Village in the province of West Kalimantan.
Addressing the diplomatic angle on Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stated that Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had agreed to implement measures to combat the haze, though he did not elaborate on specific details.
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