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

FILE PHOTO: Sunardi, a 52-year-old tobacco farmer, collects murky water for daily needs from a hand-dug well on a dry riverbed, the only remainder of what was once a flowing river as drought strikes in Grobogan regency, Central Java province, Indonesia, July 27, 2023. REUTERS/Heru Asprihanto/File Photo

KARANGANYAR, Indonesia (Reuters) - It's been four, long, hot months since Sunardi's village has seen any rainfall as an El Nino-induced drought parches Indonesia, 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. Sunardi, and scores of other residents in Karanganyar village in Central Java province, then take the water home to drink, wash and irrigate their slowly dying crops.