Farmers' funds run dry, families struggle, as drought threatens eastern Northland

Extremely dry conditions across all of Northland are costing farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars and driving families to extreme measures to save precious water.

The region has just experienced its hottest and driest year, breaking 16 records in 2019.

The start of 2020 has also seen extremely dry conditions across Northland, said Ben Noll, a meteorologist and forecaster for The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).  Read more