Indonesia’s intense, prolonged drought has exposed what remains of Somang, a village that was submerged to make way for the Karian Dam.
Hussein waits for passengers who want to go on tour of sorts in the artificial lake around the dry Karian Dam here in Somang village, which is located less than 90 kilometres southeast of Gunung Baru community, also in Indonesia’s Banten province.
The passengers are former residents of this community who have come to take in the sights of their submerged homes, such as brick foundations, pillars and other parts of these structures, that are sticking out from the receded waters of the dam reservoir in this year’s intense, prolonged drought.
These houses, including that of Hussein’s, had been submerged in the construction of the Karian Dam project between 2015 and 2024. Building the dam and and its 1,773-hectare wide reservoir aimed at supplying water to the capital Jakarta and its suburbs, involved the flooding of 11 villages in four sub-districts: Sajira, Cimarga, Maja, and Rangkasbitung.
“I’ve lived here since I was a child,” he says quietly, watching another boatman take visitors to see what remains of his village, located in Lebak regency. “Four years ago, we had to leave when our homes were flooded. For the past two years, I’ve worked as a ferryman, charging people five to ten thousand rupiah (about 33 to 66 US cents) to see what’s left of our old lives.”
These days, just four years after the dam project was completed and in the middle of a drought made more intense by a ‘super’ El Niño, the water level in the Karian reservoir has gone even lower than in recent years. As it dropped by one to three meters within just a month in July, more and more remains of lost homes, including roofs and walls, have been exposed, like pieces of human history. Many former villagers have come as media attention on Somang grew in recent months.
For many, seeing their old homes resurface after losing them to the dam project has been surreal.
“It’s like looking at a graveyard of our memories,” says Hussein, himself a former resident. He is now able to walk across the dried-out land in the reservoir and visit his former home. “I can still see exactly where my kitchen used to be. It breaks my heart, but I couldn’t stop myself from coming back to see it.”
“It feels like seeing a ghost of our past,” Hussein shared, pointing at the exposed walls of what had been his place. “We thought the water had buried our history forever, yet here it is again, rising from the dry earth.”
Where families once farmed, and children played, residents now wash their clothes at the reatreating edges of the reservoir because the village wells have dried up in this dry season, which according to Indonesian officials affected 80.7% of Indonesia’s territory as of mid-September.
The Karian reservoir was filled with 315 million cubic metres of water in late 2023, as part of the dam construction that went underway after the government bought the community’s land.
Ahead of the dam’s impoundment, Somang’s villagers meticulously dismantled their own houses, and salvaged what they could from them. They saved wooden doors, windows, roof tiles and timber structures to either reuse in building new homes at the sites they relocated to after being displaced by the dam project, or sell for extra cash. Locals had used the financial compensation they got for their land and buildings to buy land in their new communities.
This is why only the unsalvageable brick foundations of their houses lie at the bottom of the reservoir now, to be seen in the boat tours that Hussein and others give.
The extremely dry atmospheric conditions across the country also means that the wet season, which is usually expected in October, will be delayed this year. Some 61% of Indonesia’s land area will see delays in the rainy season, says Teuku Faisal Fathani, chief of the country’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.
Experts expect the rains to ease some of the hot-and-dry impact of El Niño. But at the same time, this El Niño event, which scientists expect to be the strongest on record, may well continue to have impacts well into February next year, when it is projected to ease. “Even February 2027 will still classify as super,” says Indonesian climate researcher Erma Yulihastin from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).
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Garry Lotulung is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
This article was first published on 25 September 2026 by Reporting ASEAN as part of its Sustainability Series supported by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Southeast Asia.
Disclaimer: This published work was prepared with the support of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The views and analysis contained in the work are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the foundation. The author is responsible for any liability claims against copyright breaches of graphics, photograph, images, audio, and text used.
