PONTIANAK, Indonesia: Welcome rain has brought relief to residents of Indonesia’s Pontianak city after weeks of exposure to a cloying, toxic haze given off by rampant wildfires on Borneo island.
Fires have torn through vast swathes of peat and forest areas on Borneo and nearby Sumatra island, with the resulting haze drifting also to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.
The thick smog had limited outdoor activities in Pontianak, a city of about 700,000 people, with schools forced to shutter and thousands of respiratory cases recorded in the region since last month, according to officials.
Rains in recent days have brought a welcome respite, said…
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