The fourth year of searing drought in South Asia is taking a heavy toll - dead livestock are scattered across a desiccated, dusty landscape, wells have run dry and thousands of people are wandering from their homes in search of food and water. With temperatures soaring up to 122 F (50 C) and no rain expected until late summer or fall, the situation is growing desperate.
In Pakistan, government officials estimate that nearly 3 million people - mostly villagers - face possible starvation. Already, more than 100 people have died as a result of the drought - most because of dehydration. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country's southern Thar Desert, where the drought has devastated crops and livestock.
The governor of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, Amir ul Mulk Mengal, says 1.2 million people in the province are currently suffering from the oppressive drought. One of the worst affected areas is near the Baloch town of Nushki, which lies close to the border with Afghanistan.
Nushki has had just 5 mm (0.2 inches) of rain in the last four years. For the first two or three years of the drought people relied on small reservoirs or ponds near their villages for water. Others scooped water from ancient underground channels. But now almost all sources of water have dried up, with at least six more months of blistering heat and cloudless skies ahead.
Authorities have set up a camp with access to electrically driven wells. At least 10,000 people, mainly nomadic herders, are staying at the camp, but even the water there is threatening to dry up — the water table beneath Nushki is falling at the rate of three to four meters each year.
.... Following the failure of last year's monsoon rains, areas of India are also in the grip of a severe drought. The government has mobilized massive relief efforts in several regions, including Madhya Pradesh, the western states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh in the south. Nearly 130 million people living in 12 States have been seriously affected by what some officials call the worst drought in 100 years.
"Lack of rain in recent years has a caused a serious fall in ground water level," said Jackie Wright, the Red Cross and Red Crescent assessment team leader in India. "This has led to a serious shortage of drinking water and fodder for livestock."
The current shortage is also hitting remote parts of Iran. The World Bank recently identified southern Asia, and specifically densely populated India as the place most likely to have wars over water in the 21st Century. But for now, the drought-ravaged nations can hardly keep up with their current shortages, much less find a way to prevent future water wars.