Word: desertic
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...they were armed with Kalashnikov and M-16 rifles. These were men from the Ta'amra tribe. Thought to be descendants of medieval Crusaders, they dwelled in goat-hair tents until a few decades ago, but in the 1960s they settled in villages on the edge of the Judean Desert and began to take over local farmlands. In the past few years, the Ta'amra have filled most of the jobs in Arafat's security services in Bethlehem. They have used the lack of central control during the intifadeh to cement their fiefdoms, pull in protection money and ride over...
Many chronic problems are shared by the twin cities. They slurp from a common, underground desert aquifer, but Juarez's exploding population may run out of fresh water in as little as five years because it sits on a smaller portion of the aquifer. El Paso is looking to import water from 150 miles away. Druglords have killed so many people here that victims' families--on both sides of the Rio Grande--have their own support groups. Tuberculosis and hepatitis flow freely back and forth--and beyond. "The truck driver with TB who sits in our restaurants today will...
...desalination plant in the U.S., costing $52 million, that will clean 20 million gal. of brackish water each day. In March the city started offering residents 50[cents] per sq. ft. to rip up their water-guzzling lawns and replace them with rocks and plants native to the Chihuahua desert. Juarez has banned any new high-water use maquiladoras and is encouraging factories to build water-recycling facilities...
...local doctor makes house calls for less than $20; prescription drugs often cost less than a third of their price in the U.S.--and for serious medical problems, a U.S. hospital is a three-hour drive away. At twilight, the dune buggies, piloted by ecstatic septuagenarians, dash through the desert sunsets...
...moved here so she could keep six dogs "without the neighbors calling the cops." Her friends Bill and Kay Gabbard--a retired Marine Corps sergeant and his schoolteacher wife--distribute hundreds of Spanish-language textbooks to San Felipe schools. And Bruce Barber, a former food-company executive, combs the desert for the grave of a 16th century explorer. What brings them all to the far edge of the Sonoran desert? Lou Wells, a onetime railroad clerk, answers with a decal on the side of his VW dune buggy: NO BAD DAYS...