Stock Photo - FILED - 21 June 2023, Iran, Zabol: A boy stands in front of old and abandoned boats where there was once a lake. The Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan is affected by drought and water shortages. Scorching heat, drought and sandstorms plague residents in the border region between Afghanistan and Iran. At times, water in the provinces is so scarce that it is brought to villages by tanker trucks. Now the region became the scene of a bloody skirmish in late May, when an exchange of gunfire turned the border region into a battlefield. Just days earlier, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi had threatened the Taliban in a dispute over the water of an important border river. (to dpa ""Dispute over water - neighboring states between peace and conflict"") Photo: Mohammad Dehdast/dpa. - Zabol/Sistan And Baluchistan/Iran