For 35-year-old Mangal Waghmare, a farm labourer from Kamkheda village in Beed district of Marathwada, the biggest challenge every day since October has been to get enough water for her family of five.
For the next eight to 9 months before the next monsoon, Waghmare’s big fear is that the daily struggle for water and zero income will come at the cost of her daughter Neha’s education.
Kamkheda is one among all the 11 tehsils of Beed district that are hit by ‘severe drought’ this year.
Dependent on tanker services for drinking water, the big job for villagers , who have stayed back is to ensure that they don’t miss it.
But, just when the tanker could make its way to the village, is anyone’s guess.
While only 237 tankers have been pressed into service so far in Marathwada with Aurangabad district getting the larger share of 195, district collectorate officials saidthis figure could multiply by five times over next summer.
In Warudi village in Paithan tehsil of Aurangabad district, which is also reliant on tanker services, the problem of providing water for cattle has become grim.
So far, water has not been reserved in Jayakwadi as it still has 31% of live storage.
“Taken with the dead-water storage, the stock is technically enough to supply water to the city, to industries and in fact the entire district, but we will have serious distribution, water management challenges,’’ he added.
The Jayakwadi surplus water is released to Majalgaon dam for instance to irrigate an area further down in Beed district.

The federal government have announced a $5 billion drought assistance package to support farmers struggling with extreme conditions in South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.
The Future Drought Fund, announced at the National Drought Summit on Friday, will be complimented by the $81 million Drought Communities Program which has been expanded to include 17 local council areas in South Australia.
Those council areas include the District Council of Kimba and the District Council of Cleve.
The communities program provides up to $1 million for each council in funding to support local infrastructure and other projects for communities and businesses who have been impacted by drought.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone said the expansion of the Drought Communities Program to support 17 regional councils was a welcome investment with the South Australian agriculture, food and wine industries.
“This new funding injection into droughted areas will enable councils to deliver local projects that create employment and build the resilience of communities.” But the Opposition says the government must confirm that South Australian farmers who are experiencing drought will get their fair share of $5 billion investment.
Shadow Primary Industries Minister Eddie Hughes welcomed the funding package but said he was disappointed it could not be accessed until 2020.
“Minister Whetstone must receive an assurance from his colleagues that SA’s drought affected farmers will get their fair share of the $5 billion package,” he said.
“I also call on Minister Whetstone to urge the Federal Government to bring forward the relief package – 2020 is too far away.
Drought affected farmers need help now.”

The docks are eerily quiet at Cologne’s main port on the mighty River Rhine, with hundreds of containers piled up and awaiting their journey north on one of Europe’s busiest commercial arteries.
Months of scarce rainfall and hot sunny weather drove water levels on the Rhine to a record low, forcing ship operators to suspend services to keep vessels from running aground.
He said that under normal conditions, “three or four” of his big vessels would stop each day in the city known for its Gothic cathedral.
The few barges still chugging along the river have had to drastically reduce their cargo to stay afloat.
Sitting in his office overlooking the mountain of containers, Grossman said that rail links can only fill part of the gap as long as river transport is paralysed because of a lack of infrastructure and train engineers.
On its roof are two LED panels reading 1.55m (5.09’).
“This is the lowest level ever measured here,” said Jan Boehme, a hydrologist with the Water and Shipping Authority.
Torrid temperatures throughout the summer and only rare rainfall have transformed Germany’s waterways and created a crisis unseen since the start of record keeping in 1881.
The previous low water record set in Cologne in 2003 of 81cm (32”) was shattered last week when the level dipped to just 77cm, the water authorities said.
However, since the dry spell began, industrial giant Thyssenkrupp has had to cut back production at its Duisburg plant “because a sufficient supply of raw material cannot be assured”, a company spokesman said.

But, unlike other farms in the region, there’s water flowing through the creek — crystal clear water, good enough to drink.
Australian Story’s 2005 episode on Mr Andrews and Tarwyn Park, the Hunter Valley property where he pioneered his controversial land regenerating system known as natural sequence farming, was one of the program’s most popular ever.
He travels the country advising landholders, and Mr Coote ensured ongoing scientific research and lobbying for natural sequence farming through his legacy, The Mulloon Institute.
Mr Coote could see the genius behind his method of reading the landscape and tapping into the land’s natural system of self-rehydration.
We know our bodies cannot work unless they’re hydrated, we know plants and animals can’t work unless they are hydrated.
"All we’ve done is reproduced what was a natural process in Australia’s landscapes," Mr Andrews says.
"We’ve been able to get water into the floodplains which sustains the landscape in a drought."
Thriving during drought Farmers across the eastern seaboard are suffering through a drought that some consider the worst in living memory.
"The soil is alive," says The Mulloon Institute’s Peter Hazell.
A nation that looks after its soil, looks after itself," he said.

USD-CNY weekly over the past five years.
Crunch Time In China?
China: foreign exchange reserves are decreasing again, but the PBoC balance sheet keeps growing In short, the PBoC is certainly not overly "tight," but it is also not as accommodative as it would have to be to egg on credit and money supply growth in China forcefully.
This is evidenced by the year-on-year growth rates of China’s monetary aggregates M1 and M2: China, y/y growth in the monetary aggregates M1 and M2.
If one looks carefully, by the time the market scares occurred in 2015 and early 2016, M1 was already expanding sharply again – in other words, it was the lagged effect of the previous slowdown in monetary growth rates that began to impact financial markets.
This could be a sign that bankers are becoming concerned about the pool of real funding and the ability of borrowers to repay their debts.
Of course, everything suggests that all it would take to make them change course is a nudge and wink from above, but there are always those pesky "costs" – and if the concerns of China’s commercial bankers are legitimate (we would suggest they are), then such a decision could easily lead to disaster right away.
Currently, the PBoC’s comparatively easy stance with respect to MRRs certainly seems at odds with the pace of yuan loan growth in China: China’s minimum reserve ratio (MRR) has just been pushed to the lowest level since 2008, but bank lending growth continues to stagnate.
China’s stock market has only experienced a mini echo bubble after the GFC, which mostly took place between 2014 and 2015.
Patience seems definitely advisable at this juncture, especially as developed market stock markets currently look as though they want to fall out of bed with a big thud in order to play catch-up.

The Department of Royal Irrigation (DRI) says there will be enough water for harvesting in the dry season, but the drought will continue in the northern regions.
The volume of water in four major dams — Bhumibol dam in Tak province, Sirikit dam in Uttaradit, Pa Sak Jolasid dam in Lop Buri province and Kwai Noi Bumrung Dan dam in Phitsanulok province — are at more than 70% of their capacities, which is a necessary level to supply farm areas.
He blamed falling water levels in Ubolratana dam in Khon Kaen and Mae Mok reservoir in Sukhothai province, which each hold less than 35% of their capacity.
About 410,000 paddy fields in both provinces do not have enough water to supply them through the dry season.
Five major reservoirs are also drying up, with water levels at less than 50% of capacity.
The situation, however, looks brighter for the eastern region.
Surasee Kittimonton, head of the Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation Department, said staff are planning to conduct more artificial rainmaking to feed an additional 30 million cubic metres across 120 reservoirs by the end of next month.
Currently, the department has conducted artificial rainmaking for 4,299 flights over 223 days to provide enough rain to feed 181 million rai of farmland in 58 provinces.
In another development, Gen Chatchai Sarikulya, deputy prime minister, told the media 38 water-related agencies will be relocated to a new organisation, the Ministry of Water, which is expected to take effect in the near future.
Bangkok Post:

On Tuesday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavi declared a drought-like situation in 180 tehsils across 32 districts in the state.
A drought-like situation is usually declared in areas facing water scarcity.It is one step before the state declares drought, which it will do after studying the conditions on the ground.
On Thursday, the government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani told the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Mahesh Sonak that revenue officials have conducted surveys to assess the amount of crop loss at the ground level, and that this information was now being collated in the districts.
Vagyani said a final decision on declaring drought will be taken before the due date of October 31.
Vagyani was responding to a plea filed by activist Sanjay Lakhe-Patil, who was seeking a direction to the state government to declare drought before October 31.
For a state to get financial assistance from the Centre’s National Disaster Relief Fund for the previous sowing season (in this case, Kharif 2018), it must officially declare drought by October 31, Lakhe-Patil’s advocate Ranjit Pawar told the court, referring to the 2016 Manual for Drought Management — an official guideline to declare drought.
The judges, however, refused to take up the issue and posted the plea for further hearing on October 31, in order to see what decision the state government takes.
In an affidavit filed by the state in response to Lakhe-Patil’s plea, during Kharif 2018 season, the state assessed and evaluated the drought situation on the basis of scientific indicators provided in the manual.
The affidavit added that on further assessment, the government found trigger-2 had set in 180 tehsils and on October 23, a drought-like situation was declared.
These 180 blocks, according to the affidavit, are now entitled to exemption on land revenue, restructuring of crop loans, stopping recovery of farm loans, one-third subsidy in electricity bills for agricultural motor pumps, exemption in examination fee of students and supply of drinking water by tankers.

Thomson Reuters MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Drought is expected to cut eastern Australia’s crop production this year to less than half the average over the past 20 years, with New South Wales to be worst hit, the country’s agricultural commodities forecaster said on Friday.
While some regions are facing the worst conditions in memory, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said the drought-hit areas are smaller than in previous droughts.
The winter crop in New South Wales, one of the country’s key wheat growing areas, is expected to be 65 percent below the 20-year average in the year to June 2019, the bureau said in an analysis of the 2018 drought prepared for a summit in Canberra on Friday.
Overall eastern Australia production is forecast to fall 53 percent, but for the country as a whole, output will only be down 23 percent thanks to a larger than average crop in Western Australia.
About half the farm land in southeastern Australia is suffering 1-in-20 year drought conditions, compared with more than 80 percent that was hit during the worst of the 2002-03 drought, the bureau said.
"Prices for sheep and cattle are high by historical standards, and much higher than in previous droughts … which means that feeding stock has been profitable in many cases," the bureau said.
"Cattle numbers in feedlots are at all-time highs," the report said.
The bureau warned that a large proportion of farms are likely to make "significant cash losses in 2018-19" but others would perform relatively well.
Overall farm incomes were likely to decline by "substantially less" than in previous droughts, thanks to more favorable economic conditions, including improved productivity, strong prices for livestock, and rising milk prices.
The Australian government on Friday proposed setting up a A$3.9 billion ($2.8 billion) fund for water infrastructure and drought related projects to buffer farming communities from future droughts.

Climatologists said Wednesday that conditions are right for an El Nino weather pattern to develop that could bring wetter-than-normal conditions this winter in drought-stricken areas of the southwestern U.S.
"I would say, flip a coin."
Parts of the Southwest, particularly the Four Corners region of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, are experiencing extreme to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
There is a 70-75 percent chance for development this winter of El Nino, the natural warming of parts of the central Pacific Ocean that influences weather worldwide, said Gerry Bell, research meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
El Nino-produced rainfall could relieve parched conditions in many parts of the drought-stricken Southwest but how much relief the region experiences depends upon the strength of the tropical ocean phenomenon, he said.
"El Nino is not a guarantee," he said.
Simeral said the Four Corners region is in the midst of the driest September-October period on record.
The region has experienced the warmest 12-month period on record in 123 years of record-keeping.
Snowpacks in parts of Arizona and Colorado that could provide much-needed moisture during warm, dry periods are unusually low.
Copyright 2018 Associated Press.

* $15.3 million in mental health initiatives, including $11 million to expand services at the six existing primary health networks and two new networks.
* A program to make $1 million grants available for local council will be extended to a further 21 shires.
* A new online hub for information about access to services and support hosted by the National Farmers’ Federation.
* $1.8 billion already announced in assistance measures and concessional loans to support drought-affected farmers and communities.
Raising the asset threshold from $2.6 million to $5 million and temporary supplement of up to $12,000 for couples.
* Up to $72 million for a special drought round from the National Water Infrastructure Fund.
* $75 million for drought communities program which gives money to councils and shires in this financial year.
* Additional support for producers and graziers to help manage pest animals and weeds.
* Primary producers can immediately deduct the cost of fodder storage assets such as silos and hay sheds used to store grain and animal feed.
(Source: Prime Minister’s address to drought summit.)