Reported by Zevonia Vieira
At sunrise in Abu, a small, rugged village tucked deep within Timor-Leste’s Matebian mountains, Joana begins her day with a heavy burden, one she has carried for most of her 25 years.
“We walk a long way to look for water,” Joana said quietly. “During the long dry season, we have to walk even further, to draw water. Starting at six in the morning, we have to leave.”
Joana lives in the Abu village, of Baucau Municipality, over 95 kilometres from the capital city of Dili, and it took 3 hours to drive. Abu a place once known for its cool climate with many trees around. But the cold mornings of her childhood are gone. Today, the air is warmer. The dry seasons stretch longer. Rains come late, sometimes not at all. The climate crisis, invisible in many parts of the world, is a relentless force here, shrinking springs, exhausting rivers, and turning daily survival into a test of endurance.
The spring Joana relies on lies far into the hills, nestled beyond forest paths that twist and climb. Carrying a heavy plastic jerrycan, Joana walks for hours, often with her mother and younger sisters by her side.
“I go to fetch water with my mom and little sisters, we women go together,” she said.
But even in the shared strength of sisterhood, danger lurks.
“We’re afraid to go alone to fetch water because the water source is far. I have to ask my mom and my sisters to come with me. I am scare that if I go alone, some men might harass or even assault us,” Joana said.
This fear shadows every step. Yet, the need for water does not wait.
The water they collect isn’t enough for more than a day. Every day, morning and evening, Joana and her family return to the spring. The journey is gruelling. The water, often murky and unsafe, must still be used for cooking, bathing, and washing clothes.
Joanina took water from a spring a little far from her house. [Foto: Zevonia | 07.03.2025]
“Water is scarce here. We walk almost four hours to the spring, and many people go, so we have to take turns,” Joana explained.
Joana volunteers as a teacher in a nearby school. But her responsibilities at home, fetching water, cooking, washing often delay her for teaching, and this has impacted children’s education.
“I fetch water, wash clothes, and cook. I feel the work is exhausting because we have to walk so far to get water. By the time we return, we still have to bathe, so I end up going to school late. Because the water source is far, we don’t get back home quickly, and only then can I bathe and go to school,” she said.
Each trip to the spring carves hours out of her day. After school, there is little rest. The second journey for water begins.
According to Joaquim Domingos Soares, the village chief in Abu, the water crisis affects everyone, but the burden falls hardest on women and children. Abu used to have enough water in the past.
“Now water is very scarce here. During the long dry season, we have to walk long distances to fetch it. Those who have money can buy water $2 per tank but this is difficult for people who don’t have money,” he said.
Joaquim Domingos Soares, the village chief in Abu. [Foto: Zevonia | 07.03.2025]
The community has been without reliable water access since the country’s independence.
“Women and children who fetch the water. They have to collect water early in the morning before going to school. If they go to fetch water in the morning, they end up arriving late to school because the school is also far away,” Joaquim added.
Grupu Feto Foinsa’e Timor-Leste (GFFTL), a local organization advocating for women’s rights, sees the water crisis as one thread in a much larger crisis: climate change.
Esmenia Laura Ximenes, Director of GFFTL, explained that as the springs dry up, women are forced to walk farther every day.
“The women’s in remote areas, who once had access to natural water sources near their villages, are now facing dry conditions. Due to the impact of the climate crisis, they are forced to walk very long distances, from one area to another to find water,” she said.
The consequences are devastating.
“They spend a lot of time walking long distances to collect water for their daily needs, often leaving in the morning and not returning home until nearly midday. As a result, there isn’t enough time to prepare meals or meet the family’s needs, which eventually leads to a lack of mutual understanding and contribution within the household, sometimes resulting in domestic violence,” Esmenia said.
Esmenia Laura Ximenes, Director of GFFTL. [Foto: Zevonia | 10.05.2025]
Children drop out of school. Families grow strained. Girls face added vulnerability, especially during menstruation, without access to basic sanitation.
According to the report women bear the brunt of climate-related stress due to their roles in farming, caregiving, and water collection. Droughts and floods intensify these burdens, exposing them to greater physical and emotional strain. Despite this, women remain largely excluded from decision-making spaces, weakening the country’s climate response.
Access to clean water is a key issue. As rainfall patterns shift and water sources become more distant, women responsible for water collection in most households—face longer, riskier journeys. While South Asian studies show the toll of water scarcity on women, similar data is still lacking for South-East Asia, including Timor-Leste.
The report calls for gender-inclusive climate policies to empower women and build resilience in vulnerable communities.
In Timor-Leste, nearly 353,000 people do not have clean water. Over 570,000 lack a decent toilet. Diarrheal diseases claim the lives of 65 children every year and outbreaks of cholera and typhoid are periodically report.
WaterAid and UNICEF report stark contrasts between urban and rural water access: 50% of the rural population has basic access, but few have safe, sufficient, and sustainable supplies.
The government has committed to achieving full water access by 2030. But in mountainous villages like Abu, where four-hour treks for muddy spring water are routine, that promise still feels far away.
As the climate warms, women like Joana carry the heaviest burden, literally and figuratively.
“At 6:30 in the morning, we wake up and carry two or three jerry cans. For nearly 20 years, we have been fetching water like this. During the dry season, the water runs out. When that happens, we have to walk even farther to collect it. Only during the rainy season does the water return. We feel that it is during the long dry season that we suffer the most, because we have to walk long distances just to fetch water,” she said.
Her words echo a deeper truth, climate change is not a distant, it is not an abstract threat. It is lived, daily, on hot and dusty roads, beneath scorching sun, in the hands of women carrying the weight of a world that refuses to change fast enough.
“Indeed, women and children suffer more when there is no water in the family. It has been impacted by deforestation,” say the Director of Haburas Foundation, an environmental NGO based in Dili, Pedrito Vieira.
Pedrito also said, “deforestation increases surface runoff, the rainwater flows quickly into rivers and the sea without being absorbed into the ground. This reduces the amount of water that can replenish groundwater reserves, which are a crucial source of water for many rural communities”.
Many rural communities, especially those in mountainous regions like Abu, are hardest hit.
Traditional market in Abu Village. [Foto Zevonia | 07.03.2025]
“Over 70% of our people depend on springs or hand-dug wells,” explains Timor-Leste climate expert Dioniosio Babo, who is also ambassador of Timor-Leste to United Nations, in his opinion piece for Tatoli news agency recently. “But during the dry season, many of these dry up or become unsafe.”
Babo also explains that an estimated 80% of the country’s forests have been degraded or deforested. He attributes this largely to unsustainable land use practices, such as slash-and-burn farming and timber extraction.
The expert further points out that national surveys reveal a troubling statistic, 42% of households across Timor-Leste rely on unsafe or unimproved drinking water sources. This widespread issue has led to high incidences of waterborne illnesses.
