Desperate for a drink, Indonesian villagers dig up dry river bed in drought

KARANGANYAR, Indonesia - It has been four long, hot months since Mr Sunardi’s village in Indonesia has seen any rain amid an El Nino-induced drought that has parched the vast country.

So, the tobacco farmer does the only thing he can do to get water: Dig up a dry river bed.

In an hour or two, water – salty and muddy – will fill the freshly dug hole. Mr Sunardi, and scores of other residents in Karanganyar village in Central Java, then take the water home to drink, wash and irrigate their slowly dying crops.

Mr Sunardi, who goes by one name, said: “The drought in this village has been felt since April, and there has been no rain until now. The wells in this area have dried out, so residents can only get water from the river bed.”

He added: “The plants here, such as corn, have all withered. Tobacco can live, but it doesn’t grow optimally, so we have to keep watering it with the river bed water too.”

Mr Sunardi’s village has been digging up the river bed since June, when their well water ran out.

Indonesia’s weather agency, BMKG, said the El Nino weather phenomenon,

which brings prolonged hot and dry weather,

is affecting more than two-thirds of the vast nation, including all of Java, the northern areas of Kalimantan and all but the coastal areas of Sumatra.

The population of those areas exceeds 70 per cent of Indonesia’s total population of more than 200 million people, said Dr Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan, deputy head of climatology at BMKG.

Scientists say El Nino

has caused record heatwaves in cities from Beijing to Rome,

increasing the risk of forest fires and affecting crops such as wheat, palm oil and rice.

Agriculture accounts for nearly 14 per cent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product, and a third of the labour force works in farming, government data shows.

BMKG officer Tris Adi Sukoco in Central Java said that with rainfall rates in the region drastically lower, villagers like Mr Sunardi should alter their crop patterns.

The farmer, however, said it was too late.

“Even if the river here is completely dry, we’ll have to find it wherever it is,” he said. REUTERS