INDRAGIRI HILIR, Indonesia — Dahniar starts worrying after a few days without rain during the dry season here on the northeast coast of Sumatra. Traders selling water will complain of supplies drying up. Even Dahniar’s neighbors are reluctant to sell their water when the heat is on and anxiety begins to drip through Kuala Selat village. “It’s difficult if there’s no water — it’s even hard to buy,” Dahniar, a small business owner in her 50s, told Mongabay Indonesia. Indonesia’s meteorology agency, the BMKG, recorded a months-long drought last year across most of the archipelagic nation. The 2023 dry season was exacerbated by the El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole climate patterns, leaving much of Sumatra praying for rain well into October. Across the world, climate change is worsening the water stress felt in villages like Kuala Selat. Some 436 million children live in areas of high or extreme water stress, while three-quarters of all natural disasters from 2001-2018 were water related, according to UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s fund. Kuala Selat and other communities lacking access to piped water or viable wells are sustained mainly by the rain. A jerrican of rainwater here fetches between 15,000 and 80,000 rupiah (roughly $1-$5) depending on the size of the drum. And some families go to significant lengths to ensure they will meet their basic needs. Water buckets belonging to residents of Kuala Selat yellow and rusty because the ground water from the drilled well is not suitable. Image by Suryadi/Mongabay Indonesia.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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