Word: droughts
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...drought has claimed an equally grim toll in parts of Ethiopia. Provincial bureaucrats kept the horrific dimensions of the catastrophe secret from Addis Ababa, fearing that bad news would anger and embarrass Emperor Haile Selassie and perhaps lead to their own dismissal. Finally, last spring, the number of deaths grew so great that the bureaucrats had to admit their existence and ask for international aid. At first the drought seemed confined to eastern Ethiopia. But a new government survey uncovered big pockets of famine to the south and southeast of the capital. In Bale province alone an estimated...
...Drought is not the only enemy. Rain can be just as devastating. When the spring rains came to Ethiopia this March, they broke all known records. Ten inches fell in some sections in three days (compared with one-tenth inch last spring). The torrents washed away vital crops and thousands of tons of top soil. In Wallo province, worst hit by the famine, the deluge swept away villages and roads, overturned supply trucks and dangerously delayed relief efforts...
...varsity stickmen ended a lacrosse win drought yesterday on home turf with a deluge of points rained on hapless crosstown rival MIT, while the freshman edition also put in its oar, with a come-from-behind triumph over visiting Andover...
With as much as 80% of the nation's 4 million cattle dead and tens of thousands of its 4.3 million people dying of starvation, Niger seems to fit the ominous pattern Waldheim described in his warning. But diplomats insisted that more than the drought was involved in the coup. They speculated that France had capitalized on the discontent caused by the drought and encouraged the overthrow. A prime reason: Niger has plenty of high-grade uranium, valued at not less than $1 billion...
Idle Pumps. The most threatening effect of the power shortage is on agriculture. This year, the combination of drought and fertilizer shortages is likely to hold India's grain harvest low enough to cause near famine; the power scarcity worsens the situation by making electric irrigation pumps all but useless. In Punjab state, wealthy farmers had purchased diesel pumps to use when the electric pumps failed, but the oil troubles have made diesel fuel scarce too. Gas stations selling diesel fuel have to be protected by policemen from mobs of farmers who wait for days for tank trucks...