Mexico's Worst Drought Ever is Getting Worse

A drought in northern Mexico has dried up drinking water for nearly 2.5 million people and dessicated millions of acres of farmland.

The Mexican government has had to truck water to 1,500 villages and communities all along the United States border, and is sending food to poor farmers whose crops have failed to grow.

The drought has effected seven states, according to Social Development Secretary Heriberto Felix-Guerra.

Felix-Guerra told The Associated Press that the water being sent north is specifically for drinking and cannot alleviate farmer's burdens, nor should it be given to livestock even though 1.7 million cattle have died.

This is the most severe drought the country has registered, President Felipe Calderon said at a meeting on Thursday.

Indeed, the drought is the worst to hit the country since it began recording rainfall statistics in the 1940s. Only 12 inches of rain have fallen, on average, in the affected states for far this year, about half of what is normal.

The drought was sparked by La Nina weather patterns last fall, the AP reports, and the next rainy season isn't expected until June 2012; the drought could worsen during the winter.

What we're doing now is planning how to distribute the little water we do have between now and June, when the rainy season is supposed to start, Felipe Arreguin, deputy director of the National Water Commission told the news wire.