After three months with no rain, Sriwati, a shopkeeper and mother of three children living in Penyeladi village on the tropical island of Borneo, can no longer depend on the river for her needs.
Experts say communities like Sriwati’s are facing a severe water crisis as this year’s super El Niño, combined with decades of degradation of the island’s ecologically vital peatlands — ancient wetlands that are critical for carbon storage, water regulation and pollution control — has created the perfect storm exacerbating human-caused climate change.
