The worst drought in decades is gripping much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, drying out rivers and lakes, shriveling crops and leading to days-long tap water cutoffs in major cities.

The situation is particularly dire in Syria, where experts say rainfall has been declining for decades and the fledgling government is trying to stitch the country back together following a 14-year civil war that left millions impoverished and reliant on foreign aid.

Small-farmer Mansour Mahmoud al-Khatib said that during the war, he couldn't reach his fields in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab on some days because militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia allied with then-President Bashar Assad blocked roads.

That problem vanished when Hezbollah withdrew after Assad fell in a December rebel offensive, but the drought has devastated his farm, drying up the wells that irrigate it.

"The land is missing the water," al-Khatib told The Associated Press earlier this summer as he watched workers feed the wheat he did manage to harvest.

“This season is weak — you could call it half a season.”

In a good year, his land could produce as much as 800 to 900 kilograms (1,764 to 1,984 pounds) of wheat per dunam, an area equal to 0.1 hectares and 0.25 acres.

This year, it yielded about a quarter that much, he said.

He hired only six or seven workers this harvest season instead of last year’s 15.

Because the drought followed a prolonged war, farmers who were already financially stretched have had little ability to cope with its effects, said Jalal Al Hamoud, national food security officer for the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Syria.

Before the uprising-turned-civil war that began in 2011, Syrian farmers produced an average of 3.5 million to 4.5 million tons of wheat per year, which was enough to meet the country’s domestic needs, according to Saeed Ibrahim, director of agricultural planning and economics in Syria’s Agriculture Ministry.

That annual yield dropped to 2.2 million to 2.6 million tons during the war, and in recent years, the government had to import 60% to 70% of its wheat to feed its roughly 23 million people.

This year's harvest is expected to yield only 1 million tons, forcing the country to spend even more of its strained resources on imports.

The drought isn't the only major issue facing Syria, where postwar reconstruction is projected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Since Assad fled, the country has been rattled by outbreaks of sectarian violence, and there's growing doubt about whether the new authorities will be able to hold it together.

Without jobs or stability, millions of refugees who fled during the war are unlikely to come home.

A dam on the Litani River in neighboring Lebanon's fertile Bekaa Valley forms Lake Qaraoun, a reservoir that spans about 12 square kilometers (4.6 square miles).

Over the years, climate change has led to a gradual decline in the water flowing into the reservoir, said Sami Alawieh, head of the Litani River National Authority.

This summer, after an unusually dry winter left Lebanon without the water reserves its usually banks through snow and rainfall, it has shrunk to the size of a pond, surrounded by a vast expanse of parched land.

Although an average of 350 million cubic meters (12.4 billion cubic feet) of water flows into the lake during the rainy season each year, meeting about one-third of Lebanon's annual demand, this year the incoming water didn't exceed 45 million cubic meters (1.6 billion cubic feet), he said.

Lebanon’s water woes have further exacerbated the drought in Syria, which partially relies on rivers flowing in from its western neighbor.

Most experts agree Syria and the broader region appear to be headed toward worse climate shocks, which they are ill prepared to absorb.

AP video by Abd Al-Rahman Shaheen and Fadi Tawil

Production by Malak Harb