In face of drought, Portugal officials set priority to provide drinking water

Portugal is facing the country's worst drought in more than 20 years. The dire situation might lead to a ban on the irrigation of farmland, which uses up 80 percent of the region's available water.  

Portugal's Pego do Altar reservoir looks like disused quarry now, its bare, exposed slopes rising up steeply on each side and shimmering in the sun as it holds barely 11 percent of the water it was designed for.

The huge lake where people used to swim, boat and fish has shrunk to a slither of water, surrounded by baked, cracked earth and a handful of white fish carcasses. It is a desolate and disturbing sight – and one that has become increasingly common in southern Portugal.