JP/Ika Krismantari

Childhood memories seem to have driven Indonesian scientist Dewi Galuh Condro Kirono to dedicate her career to clean water.

Born a village girl in Pasuruan, East Java, 47 years ago, Dewi grew up like any other small town girl in Indonesia, playing in the nearby river and taking a bath there after school.

 'The water was so clear,' she reminisced, speaking about 'luxuries' that children today can no longer enjoy.

Four decades have passed since then and perhaps Dewi's expertise in climate change correlates with her longing for pure and clean water.

Dewi is working for CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, as a senior research scientist, and has been engaging on numerous projects, mostly related to clean water sustainability both in Australia and Indonesia.

The main focus of her research is assessing the impact of climate change on water supplies.

One of her major projects was the Murray-Darling Project under John Howard's administration. She was among 200 scientists involved in the A$10 million (US$8.92 million) project, aimed at making recommendations to the federal government for water management in one of the most important agricultural areas in Australia, covering five states.

Apart from working on mostly Australian projects, she is also dealing with research in her home country. Her current project is water security in Makassar, South Sulawesi. She is leading a team on the project, which is aimed at managing sustainable water supplies in a city facing environmental and climate change.

Dewi said her experience working in Australian institutions had given her new knowledge that Indonesia could adopt to solve issues in water management.

'What I've learned working in developed countries is that water management is already integrated into a long-term plan,' she says.

Unfortunately, she said this approach had not been implemented, putting Indonesia at the risk of a natural resource crisis in the future.

'With the lack of coordination between agencies, I believe in the next 30-40 years, Indonesia will not only face a water crisis, but also an energy and food crisis.'

This follows her previous prediction on Jakarta's floods, which turned into reality.

'I wrote back when I was still a student that if the Jakarta administration did not reform its chaotic water management, the city would suffer constant floods even though rainfall was average,' she said.

Her expertise was also evident in her dissertation on the impact of El Nino on paddy production in Indonesia.

Her thesis shows how predictable patterns of weather during the dry season in Indonesia can be beneficial for farmers to determine cultivation periods. Her research was named the Best Paper in the annual meeting of the association of American geographers in Hawaii in 1999.

Dewi's expertise in climate change has earned her numerous awards and fellowships from different respected international institutions. Yet, she remains a humble person, as can be seen from her limited presence on social media. She hasn't signed up to LinkedIn, the most popular website among professionals to connect with each other.

'I'm not keen on that kind of stuff, I'd rather work,' she said.

As a result, finding her work on the Internet is quite a task. Yet, Dewi, who only opens her Facebook page once every three months, said she didn't mind at all as she preferred people to contact her directly through her email address to discuss climate change and water issues.

Interestingly, Dewi's interests in climate change and water sustainability transpired in a very simple way when she was young.

'I only wanted to become a university lecturer and study abroad,' she said.

After graduating from high school, she continued to study geography at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University (UGM) to pursue her dream to become a lecturer. She developed her interest in the environment after hearing about the sustainability of the Gajah Mungkur Dam in Wonogiri, Central Java.

'The news said the dam, which was expected to operate for 100 years, would only last for 30 to 50 years due to soil sedimentation,' she said.

Her interest in the impact of climate change on water security helped her realize her aspirations.

After graduating from UGM, Dewi became a lecturer and had the chance to pursue a master's degree and doctorate in Australia after receiving international grants.

However, a family decision brought Dewi back to Australia.

'My husband had already got a job here and we decided to move here. The decision forced me to find a job here too and luckily I found a vacancy in CSIRO,' she explained.

Having a remarkable career hasn't seemed to stop Dewi from being a great woman at home.

The mother of two said she always tried to spend her spare time with her children and improve her cooking skills by trying new recipes.

Despite Dewi's success, she knows her efforts are limited in relation to improving Indonesia's water condition, but this hasn't stopped her from trying. She's decided to start small, beginning from her inner circle.

Dewi has been collaborating with research partners, students and policymakers in the Makassar project, trying to influence them to apply an integrated and long-term approach to water supply management.

'If we want changes we don't need to start from big ones. We can start from the little things,' she said, believing that one good thing, no matter how small, would lead to another.

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