In an hour or two, the water – salty and muddy – will fill the newly dug hole. Sunardi and dozens of other residents of Karanganyar village in Central Java province then bring the water home to drink, wash and irrigate their slowly dying crops.
“The drought in this village has been felt since April, and there has been no rain so far. Wells in this area have dried up, so residents can only draw water from the bed of the river,” said Sunardi, who only goes by one name. , told Reuters.
“The plants here, like the corn, are all wilted. The tobacco can live, but it’s not growing optimally, so we have to keep watering it with water from the riverbed as well.”
The village of Sunardi has been digging the river bed since June, when the water in their wells ran out.
The Indonesian Meteorological Agency (BMKG) said the El Niño weather phenomenon, which brings prolonged hot and dry weather, is affecting more than two-thirds of the vast nation, including all of Java, parts of North Kalimantan and all but the coastal areas of Sumatra.
The population of these regions exceeds 70% of Indonesia’s total population of more than 200 million, said Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan, deputy head of climatology at BMKG.
Scientists say El Niño caused record high heat waves in cities from Beijing to Rome, increasing the risk of wildfires and affecting crops such as wheat, palm oil and rice.
Agriculture accounts for nearly 14% of Indonesia’s GDP and a third of the workforce works in agriculture, according to government data.
Tris Adi Sukoco, a BMKG official in Central Java, said with significantly lower rainfall rates in the region, villagers like Sunardi would have to change their cultivation patterns.
The farmer, however, said it was too late.
“Even if the river here is completely dry, we will have to find it wherever it is,” he said.
