The assessment has taken time in a country where roads are poor and there are no phones. The wells are empty The UN says it will have a detailed one-year strategy ready by the end of the month. But it says some actions are urgently needed now, such as providing drinking water, emergency food rations and fodder for livestock. The harvest from wheat relying on rainfall is virtually nil, and even farmers who have access to irrigation are only likely to get half of their normal yield. In some areas, this is the second or even third dry year in a row.
Many people have few or no resources to fall back on.
The dry weather has come when the economy was already suffering from tighter border controls, a deteriorating exchange rate and big increases in food prices. No summer rain Afghanistan has no prospect of rain until next winter. Unlike neighbouring Pakistan, which is also suffering from a drought, rain does not fall here in the summer. That means the next possible good harvest will not be until the summer of 2001. So the UN expects to be helping out for at least another twelve months.