Four Indonesian provinces have declared disaster alerts as threats of forest and land fires continue to rise at the start of the dry season in the country. The provinces are South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan. All the listed provinces have been prone to forest fires in previous years. The last massive forest fires occurred in 2015 and caused diplomatic tensions with neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Earlier this month, President Joko Widodo urged authorities to continue their efforts to prevent land and forest fires this year to ensure the Asian Games, which will be hosted by Indonesia, can proceed smoothly without any disruption of haze. He had also promised the prime ministers of Singapore and Malaysia that 2018 would be a haze-free year.