Even the prayers didn't help.

The sky over Morocco did not open.

It stayed mercilessly blue, no rain clouds came up.

For five months, the North African country has been experiencing its worst drought in three decades.

In early February, Mohamed VI.

the 41 million Moroccans for a national day of prayer.

The king, who is also the leader of the faithful, had sermons read out in the mosques.

It is not the first time that Morocco has "begged the Almighty to spread his beneficent rain on the earth".

And the long-lasting drought is increasingly affecting other countries in North Africa.

Hans Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb based in Madrid.

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Two weeks after the Day of Prayer, the king announced an emergency relief program.

The Moroccan government fears massive crop failures and is helping the farmers with ten billion dirhams;

that's the equivalent of more than 930 million euros.

The first demonstrations have already taken place on the streets.

Everything is getting more expensive: basic foodstuffs, energy, plus galloping inflation.

In Alhad, 50 kilometers north of the capital Rabat, an angry crowd looted the bazaar's vegetable and meat stalls.

The government promised to help the citizens too.

But prices will continue to rise.

If it stays as dry as it has been in recent weeks, there will be little left of the local grain and vegetable harvest.

Faced with withering stalks, farmers have already given up the wheat harvest.

They complain that there is not enough grass to feed their animals.

The farmers not only feed the country, Morocco lives from agriculture.

It is the second most important economic sector after tourism.

More than a third of all jobs depend on it.

With the drought, Morocco is hitting the second major plague in less than two years after the outbreak of the corona pandemic.

Covid-19 caused tourism to collapse, and the borders remained closed for months.

Most recently, the authorities once again cut all connections abroad until the beginning of February in order to stop the spread of the Omicron variant.

Farmers are the largest water consumers in the country.

According to the government, 87 percent of the scarce resource flows into the fields and into the stables.

Morocco is one of the most important fruit and vegetable producers in Africa, with a large part of the harvest being exported.

Morocco supplies tomatoes, citrus fruits and more and more avocados to Europe.

Because of the lack of rain, the feed for the animals is also running out.

Shepherds drive their flocks across meadows that are slowly turning into deserts.

Breeders are therefore starting to sell their animals, even though prices are low.

The government now wants to subsidize animal feed, but this also comes from Eastern Europe, where war is now raging.

Grain, maize and fertilizers come from Ukraine and Russia.

In Morocco, more and more people are competing for water.

The population has been growing for years.

Normally, the winter rain fills around 140 reservoirs.

But they are currently only a good third full.

They are used almost exclusively for the drinking water supply, there is not enough for irrigating the fields and plantations.

Farmers are starting to dig wells on their own, causing the water table to drop further.

In the middle of winter, cities like Marrakech and Oujda started rationing: Parks can only be watered at night, swimming pools can only be filled once a year.

Other cities want to follow this example.

Even if the hoped-for spring rains should set in, the forecasts are bleak.

Morocco is doing more to protect the climate than few other countries, using solar and wind energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But climate change can hardly be stopped.

According to experts, it will mean that precipitation will continue to decrease not only in Morocco but in the entire region, while temperatures will rise sharply.

A heat wave with temperatures of up to 50 degrees hit the Maghreb region last summer.

Forest fires broke out in Tunisia and Algeria, killing dozens of people.

In Morocco, 2020 was the hottest year on record.

While there has been a drought year in every decade in the past,

The World Bank is therefore warning that climate change and water shortages in Morocco could have dramatic consequences.

1.9 million people could be forced to leave their homes by 2050.

In the worst case, there could be up to 19 million climate migrants across North Africa.