Farmers in a Bad Place as Rio Grande Dries Up

Part of the Rio Grande River that flows through Albuquerque, 🏞️New Mexico — and supplies farmers in the area — has run dry amid a drought slamming the Southwest.

“We’re pretty much out of water at this point,” Jason Casuga, CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, told The Washington Post in an article published Friday.

Casuga noted that although some parts of the river run dry between the spring snowmelt and autumn rains, the section of the river near Albuquerque has not been like this since 1983.

“Most folks in Albuquerque who have lived here have grown up always seeing the river have water,” he said.

“So it would be a real big surprise to wake up and go outside and look at the river and realize, ‘hey there’s no water,'” he told the post.

But that was what took place Friday, he said.

The region has faced three years of severe drought. Some late June rain gave the parched land a dollop of relief, but July ushered in triple-digit highs.

As of Thursday, more than 73 percent of New Mexico