Papua New Guinea is normally one of the rainiest places on Earth, which makes its present emergency all the more striking. Since August, some regions have received less than a quarter of their usual rainfall. Rivers and creeks have dried up, family food gardens have withered, and a country that rarely thinks about water scarcity is now rationing it. The cause lies thousands of kilometres out in the Pacific.

Kasis Inape, assistant director of the National Weather Service, explains that the warm tropical waters which feed PNG's rain have shifted east during El Niño, leaving the country "starved of rain". Because most people are subsistence farmers who depend entirely on rainfall, the effects spread quickly. By the time the weather service formally declared El Niño's onset in June, much of the country was already in drought, and about 8 million people had been affected. Forecasters warn that this event could be the strongest ever recorded, with global heating making it worse.

The consequences reach well beyond the fields. Schools and health clinics are closing early because they lack water for basic services. Electricity is scarce. In the highlands, families are cutting meals to one a day, and hunger is fuelling disputes between neighbours.