A farmer fills tanks with fresh water bought from a vendor at his home, in Vietnam's southern Ben Tre province on March 19, 2024. Every day, farmer Nguyen Hoai Thuong prays in vain for rain to fall on the cracked dry earth of her garden in Vietnam's Mekong Delta -- the country's "rice bowl" agricultural heartland.A blazing month-long heatwave has brought drought, parching the land in Thuong's home of Ben Tre province, 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of business hub Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)