Even the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico and the United States, is running almost dry along a long stretch of the border. To make matters worse, a heat wave is sweeping northern Mexico, especially the Pacific coast states. But farmers and ranchers say those only washed away valuable topsoil. What is needed, they say, is several weeks of light, steady rain to seep down into the parched earth. According to figures released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Iraq has lost about 70 percent of its crops in the country's breadbasket.
All indications point to a wheat and barley crop failure.
June 1999 Drought hits Damascus water supply. A spring which has provided drinking water for Damascus for more than four thousand years can no longer cope with demand after what local officials say is the worst drought to hit Syria for a quarter of a century. One in eight hungry Half of farm soil imperiled Iraq says sanctions kill 10,295 people in November.