LHASA: At 66, Yangjen walks at least three kilometers every afternoon to carry home two buckets of water - enough only for cooking and drinking.

Affected by the worst drought in more than two decades, her village in Lhundrup county on the suburbs of Tibet's capital Lhasa has cracks in the field. Crops are withering and every villager, young and old, is praying for rain.

"This is the worst drought I can remember," said Yangjen. Her family's well, which used to provide enough drinking and irrigation water for her family of five, hasn't produced a single drop for a week. "For several nights, I dreamed that it rained."