Almost every day, heavy rains pounded Raknamo village, on the western end of Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara. The climate worried Ermi Rodiyati Bani, 39. The dike in Raknamo was extremely fragile. It felt like it could break at any moment. Crops in the area of the village, going up to as wide as 1,100 hectares, could fail if inundated with water.

Ermi took out her cell phone and typed a short message: "The dike has yet to be repaired." That text, s