The mooing of cows can also be heard as a cry or a protest. In the mountains of southeastern Serbia, drought is tormenting people and animals. In the only place where there was water for the 1,200 oxen and 500 horses that graze here, everything has dried up. Daniel Velikovich is one of the breeders who has his animals here and is forced to carry water by the barrel every day. Often and more than once.

“We had enough water until recently, but then the problem started. It’s a daily struggle. We cannot store it and walk away confident that the cows will survive. We are on alert. If we leave, the cows will die.”

Times have changed

Drought is now a common phenomenon, in an area that a few years ago had no such problems. Now residents wait for it every summer due to the long dry spell, as meteorologist Ana Vuković Vimić explains: “When we experience extreme heat waves, as was the case last year, in June, July and August, the high temperatures in the series logically increase the demand for water. Large amounts evaporate and this causes shortages. Dry spells last 10 days or even two weeks, which is new.”

The dry periods are interrupted by intense storms that drop a lot of water, but it does not have time to be stored. Slavica Ivkovic, chairman of the Gajin Han municipality, says he is disappointed with the central government for not fulfilling its promise of drilling projects that would solve the problem.

“Some experts came and did tests. They said there is enough water. They just need to drill and then we will have it, they said. A solution is urgently needed, but local people need to mobilize and ask for help.”

With army water carriers

Some help comes only from the military, which brings water vehicles up here. But one load is only enough for 50 animals, not the 1,700 or so that are here. In the meantime, all the locals can do is hope that the rainy season will start again. For them it is a question of survival, as the breeder explains.

“We depend on these cows. It is our life. Without them we have no other income. If they die, we will have nothing but some allowances to live on.”

For some people, climate change is not an incomprehensible scientific theory that may never reach their ears, but a daily experience, often extremely threatening.