If you live in the United States, especially if you live on the West Coast, you’re no doubt well aware of the historic, years-long drought in California, which now has spread across 97 percent of the state with nearly half the state falling into the worst category, exceptional drought.
But as USA Today reports this week, other areas around the world appear to be suffering from drought as bad as California’s. Brazil, North Korea, Puerto Rico and South Africa all are in the grip of their worst drought in years or even decades, situations that threaten potentially dire consequences for millions of their citizens.
Located at the southern tip of the continent and home to some 54 million people, South Africa is facing its worst drought since the early 1990s as dam water levels have dropped about 12 percent from a year ago, just as the country is in the midst of its annual dry season. The drought has forced farmers to dramatically cut corn and sugar crop production, and water restrictions “are likely to be imposed“. Conditions are particularly dire in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, where the rapidly deteriorating drought situation is forcing the government to deal more forcefully with the water emergency. “This province is facing a water crisis situation,” said Nomusa Dube-Ncube, a member of the province’s executive council, in an interview with South Africa’s News24. “It is necessary to increase restrictions and implement mandatory restrictions. We are talking about a very serious situation here.”
In June, North Korea‘s state news agency announced that the world’s most isolated nation is facing its worst drought in a century, a frightening prospect for a country that already regularly experiences food shortages.
From Puerto Rico to Cuba to the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, crops are withering, reservoirs are drying up and cattle are dying while forecasters worry that the situation could only grow worse in the coming months.
In the Dominican Republic, mango farmers are only able to grow less than half of the 100 varieties of the fruit they normally grow thanks to a lack of rain and reliable irrigation infrastructure. In the Jamaican capital city of Kingston, water is turned off to some taps at night and during the day to all residents in nearby Portmore.
The region’s drought has become particularly bad in Puerto Rico, where water rationing was expanded last month in several cities including the capital San Juan, where more than 100,000 residents now have their water cut off every other day.
Both “unprecedented and predicted,” according to a water analyst with the World Bank, the drought that parts of Brazil have experienced since the end of 2014 is the nation’s worst in 50 years. The main water supply in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, is running on emergency reserves. The system is able to deliver only about 40 percent of its normal capacity – before 2014, it supplied about 8,700 gallons of water per second, the World Bank reports. But now, it’s delivering only about 3,500 gallons per second, according to data from Brazil’s National Water Agency. At the neighborhood level, the drought has led to fights between neighbors during temporary shutoffs. And in the poorer areas of the city, access to water is far more restricted. “They have two hours of water on tap — the women don’t sleep because the water comes in the early hours of the morning, at around 4 a.m.,” Martha Lu, a 43-year-old Sao Paulo resident, told CNBC.
Megadrought: Study warns US Southwest ‘virtually certain’ to run bone-dry by 2100
These great lakes are disappearing or have already gone around the world
Eastern Mediterranean drought worst in 900 years – NASA
Severe drought devastating southern European crops
Ethopia in crisis: Drought leaves millions suffering
State of emergency in Bolivia amid worst drought in 25 years
Brazil’s poorest region suffers worst drought in a century
Worst drought in over a century, severe water crisis continues in South Africa
Water crisis hits Cape Town, schools resort to ration water
Iraq bans farming summer crops as water crisis grows dire
Iran: Drought epidemic fuels water crisis
UK farmers call for summit over drought crisis
Drought raises food security fears in Afghanistan
Severe drought blamed for sharp decline in economy, exports of soy and corn, Argentina
PROPHECY 36
I Am Not Only Your God Of Yesterday, Today, But Tomorrow, Even In The Darkest Hour
August 10, 1999
When you hear accusations of hoarding and governments that never rationed start rationing, when even the water is doled out as though it were a gift from man, then know this is the beginning of what I have prophesied above. When war is on all sides, and your country is ambushed know that I have forewarned those that were to FLEE and told them where to FLEE and if they obey they are under MY umbrella of safety, if they do not obey then although I love them and grieve for them they shall suffer in ways that would not have been necessary Have one fear and that fear is not hearing MY voice.
PROPHECY 60
Hide Yourselves MY Children, For Just A Little While Longer!
August 31, 2002
How long, how long, how long must you try the patience of the Creator? How long must you try the patience of the Redeemer? I shall stomp MY foot on the ground and everything that can be shaken will be shaken; everything that can be uprooted will be uprooted. I shall shake up your politicians and I don’t care what country you’re in, you’re no longer going to look to a government to provide. MY Children’s going to know there is but One provider. It’s the same One that poured water from a rock, that put manna on the ground. It is the same One that says I will supply all of your needs according to MY riches in Glory [Phil. 4:19]. And I have no lack in Glory. In MY fury I breathed upon not only the United States but in various parts of the world MY hot breathe. Temperatures rose as MY temper rose. Droughts came as MY Living Water was refused.
…
I prophesied through this handmaiden that water would be rationed years ago and now you see it come to pass in places it’s never been rationed before. Temperatures are soaring in countries it’s never soared before. The earth is shaking in places it’s never shook before.
PROPHECY 94
I, YAHUVEH, Say, Do Not Underestimate MY Anger for it’s Been Building Up as a Raging Inferno.
December 22, 2007
When you hear a voice say, “YAHUVEH wouldn’t do that,” just know this, oh yes I will.
Do not underestimate MY power. Do not underestimate MY anger for it’s been building up as a raging inferno. It has caused hell to get so much hotter. They talk about global warming, the very flames of hell warm this earth. Combined with that which is buried and hidden in the coldest part of the earth. Combine all this with manmade pollution, chemicals in the air, for it is more than one.