ISLAMABAD -- While press photographers scrambled inside a hospital in Delhi recently to catch a glimpse of baby Astha, India's 1 billionth citizen, in other parts of India officials continued to battle this year's drought, which has been drying up water supplies and causing crop losses. Just last month, relief workers estimated that an estimated 50 million Indians may fall victim to the drought.
And it's not India alone that is suffering. Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan and part of the southern province of Sindh have also been hit hard by the drought, as has neighboring Afghanistan.
While India and Pakistan may still get some monsoon rainfall this year, it's possible that Afghanistan won't get relief until its annual snowfalls begin at the end of the year. Some of the more pessimistic observers warn that even this will not bring relief, as Afghanistan will have to wait another six months before the snow melts and some of its dry irrigation channels begin to fill. A humanitarian tragedy striking three countries with a combined population of 1.16 billion is hardly a matter to be taken lightly.