JAKARTA: Communities in many parts of the country are facing worsening water shortages as a strengthening El Niño brings prolonged dry conditions, putting residents at risk.
People have been forced to buy water from mobile vendors after their wells ran dry or became increasingly turbid following four months without rain.
Some people have turned to local rivers to wash their clothes as water supplies run low. But the rivers are also drying up, with sluggish flow and only stagnant pools remaining among rocks and patches of mud.
Others have resorted to repeatedly filtering turbid well water for bathing and washing kitchen utensils.
Rasini, a resident of Ciganjeng village in Padaherang district, West Java, said the water level in her well had fallen sharply over the past two months.
“For the past two months, the water has been yellow. There is also very little left, and it has to be filtered several times before it can be used,” she said on Tuesday as quoted by Detik.com.
Rasini said she now relied entirely on purchased water for drinking and other household needs, adding that she hoped authorities would provide water assistance to help ease the cost.
According to data from the West Java Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), the clean water crisis has affected 705,817 people across all 27 regencies and cities in the province.
Local authorities have distributed more than 17.6 million litres of clean water to affected communities as they struggle with the shortages.
In Pati regency, Central Java, a prolonged drought dried up a dam on the Juana River over the past week, triggering a mass fish die-off that has left a pungent odor and attracted swarms of flies, disrupting people living nearby.
The sharp drop in the river’s water level has also triggered land subsidence of up to two metres in several areas, damaging at least seven shophouses in Purworejo village.
Sukarno, a resident of Purworejo whose house is about 5m from the river, said his backyard had subsided by more than one metre over the past two weeks.
“It started about 15 days ago and has gradually worsened. It sinks a little more every day, and it is still happening,” Sukarno said.
“I am worried the cracks will continue to spread toward the houses.” In Central Kalimantan, prolonged drought has dried up parts of the Barito River, one of the longest and largest rivers in the Kalimantan region.
Dedi Shalihin, who lives in Montallat district in North Barito regency, said falling water levels had brought river transportation to a standstill.
“We are currently facing difficulties with water transportation because traders using boats can no longer pass through, while the low water level has completely halted the ferry service for four-wheeled vehicles,” he said recently, as quoted by Kompas.com.
Dedi said traders had been forced to reroute supplies along an unpaved alternative route through logging and coal-mining roads, adding about three hours to the journey.
The disruption has pushed the price of subsidized liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to nearly four times its normal level and driven up the prices of food and other household necessities.
The prolonged dry spell has also affected agriculture, with drying farmland and gardens resulting in crop failures, local people said. The drought has further hampered firefighting efforts as massive wildfires continue to tear through parts of Kalimantan.
Indonesia is bracing for a longer dry season this year as El Nino strengthens, increasing the risk of prolonged below-normal rainfall across the archipelago.
As of early September, about 80 per cent of the country had entered the dry season, with most regions expected to experience below-average rainfall through the end of the year, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).
Djoko Santoso, head of the Climate Change Center at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), said the 2026-27 El Nino was forecast to reach strong to very strong levels.
“Since late June 2026, the index has stood at 1.56, putting it in the strong category. The BMKG expects the index to continue rising and peak around December to January 2027, with a possibility of reaching the very strong category after January,” he said as Kompas.id. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
