14 JULY 2015 - THAILAND:  A nearly empty khlong (irrigation canal) near Bangkok. The drought that has crippled agriculture in central Thailand is now impacting residential areas near Bangkok. The Thai government is reporting that more than 250,000 homes in the provinces surrounding Bangkok have had their domestic water cut because the canals that supply water to local treatment plants were too low to feed the plants. Local government agencies and the Thai army are trucking water to impacted communities and homes. Roads in the area have started collapsing because of subsidence caused by the retreating waters. Central Thailand is contending with drought. By one estimate, about 80 percent of Thailand's agricultural land is in drought like conditions and farmers have been told to stop planting new acreage of rice, the area's principal cash crop.      PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ
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