Late Monsoon Bypassing Key Bangladesh Agricultural Regions - "Severe Drought" Possible w/i Weeks

[hatrack]

A delay to Bangladesh's monsoon season is posing a severe risk of drought in the impoverished nation and threatening food supplies, officials warned Tuesday.

Monsoon rains normally sweep Bangladesh from June to September and the South Asian country gets more than 75 percent of its annual rainfall during this period but a lack of rain is hampering crop potential.

"For weeks there have been no rains in the northern and central districts, the country's main food belt. Tens of millions of farmers could not sow summer rice as their farmlands have dried up," said Ruhul Amin, the government's food planning chief. "If no rain comes in the next couple of weeks, it will be a severe drought," he added.

The head of the government's weather department, Arjumand Habib, said rainfall during June was 37 percent below average while the first 19 days of July saw 23 percent lower precipitation than average for the period.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Drought_threat_for_Bangladesh_as_monsoon_fails_999.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Wow. Given GW-induced climate change, no one could have forseen THIS.

[phantom power]

2. It seems that India and China are headed for a water apocalypse.

On track to lose at least 40% of the water that sustains over two billion people.

[Nihil]

3. Woohoo ... win-win!

On the one hand (via water shortage) there is the "opportunity"
to reduce the population by 800 million people whilst on the other
(as the result of conflict between two nuclear-armed nations) the
reduction would be even higher.

:nuke:

Just when I get all sad about the lack of progress, along comes
another flicker of hope ... (or something) ...

[GliderGuider]

4. I love this place.

The outcroppings of bed-rock cynicism in almost every thread are oddly reassuring.
:thumbsup: