'Nature is punishing us': Drought imperils farmers and bees in Mexico's north

By Jose Luis Gonzalez

BUENAVENTURA, Mexico (Reuters) - In the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, residents and farmers have anxiously watched and waited for clouds to bring rain to refill dried-out dams, water wells and lagoons. They've waited so far in vain.

The largest state of Mexico has a dry or semi-dry climate at the best of times, but has faced unusually low rainfall levels in recent years. Near the town of Buenaventura, the Las Lajas dam is near empty and the little water left is infested with dead fish.

"The situation is bleak," said Rogelio Pacheco Flores, the municipal president of Buenaventura. "This dam is practically without water. We see total devastation, the truth is that nature is punishing us."

Cattle from nearby farms have come to cool off in the little wet mud that remains, but the depleted dam has meant many farmers have suffered, unable to irrigate their crops.

In previous planting seasons, the wells helped water the land, but amid the drought farmers have decided to leave land unplanted or use the scarce water to keep long-standing groves of walnut trees from dying.

"The levels of our farming wells are dwindling," said local farmer Angel Rueda Solorio. "We are no longer able to sow our crops due to the lack of water. We have already had several years, two consecutive years without rain."

Local beekeepers have also been hit. Bees are dying in huge numbers because the lack of rain has drastically reduced wild flower blooms, causing the bees to go looking for pollen in the crop fields, where herbicides kill them as well as pests.

"There is almost no vegetation in the landscape right now, due to the drought," said Adan Rascon Ramos, a beekeeper in the area for around 30 years.

As water levels have fallen, the local tourist trade has dried up, along with fishing, leaving producers hoping that conditions will improve in the months ahead.

"I have been working here for a year now at the dam and I have seen how the number of people who come to walk around the dam has decreased since last year," said Daniel Alberto Rubi, a fisherman who gives boat tours to visitors.

"This year things are very dry. The dam is at like 20% capacity and it keeps going down."

(Reporting by Jose Luis Gonzalez; Editing by Adam Jourdan and David Holmes)