South-East Asia and India struck by worst drought in decades – in pictures

With temperatures regularly reaching the mid-forties (celsius), South-East Asia and India are currently suffering from one of their worst heat waves in history.

Soaring temperatures have claimed the lives of more than 150 people. Lakes are drying up, causing the large-scale deaths of freshwater fish. Top rice exporter Vietnam has been hit by its worst drought in a century, destroying paddy fields and crop production.

In India, about 330 million people (almost a quarter of the country's population) are now affected by drought, the government estimates. Schools have been closed and outdoor working has stopped.

The United Nations has attributed the heat wave and drought to El Niño. The weather pattern is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, which can trigger extreme weather in some regions. The current El Niño has been one of the strongest ever.

A girl carries water through a field in Latur, IndiaImage: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Boys cool off under a water fountain in New Delhi, IndiaImage: REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

Hoses are used to distribute water from a government-run water tanker in Masurdi village, IndiaImage: REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

Children cool off in the mud in New Delhi, IndiaImage: REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee

A woman bathes at a municipal tap on the outskirts of Kolkata, IndiaImage: REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

A man walks through a dried-up lake in Ahmedabad, IndiaImage: REUTERS/Amit Dave

A dust storm on the banks of the Ganga River in Allahabad Image: REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash

A farmer burns his dried-up rice on a paddy field stricken by drought in the Mekong Delta, VietnamImage: REUTERS/Nguyen Huy Kham

A woman and her son search for fish in the pools created by a drought irrigation system in the Mekong Delta, VietnamImage: REUTERS/Nguyen Huy Kham

This was once a pond in the drought-stricken Kandal province, CambodiaImage: REUTERS/Pring Samrang

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