Crops are wilting schools have shut their bathrooms and locals are bathing in lagoons because of a severe shortage of fresh water in a swath of the South Pacific.\nThe island groups of Tuvalu and Tokelau have declared emergencies relying on bottled water and seeking more desalination machines.\nTuvalu says its water crisis is likely to continue into next year the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.\nSupplies are precariously low after a severe lack of rain in a region where underground reserves have been fouled by saltwater from rising seas that scientists have linked to climate change.\nIn Tuvalu a nation of low lying atolls that is home to less than 11000 people an operation led by Australia New Zealand and the Red Cross is underway to relieve the country s drought-stricken islands.\nThe New Zealand government flew a defence force C-130 plane to Tuvalu stocked with Red Cross supplies of bottled water and desalination machines. \nTuvalu s maritime surveillance adviser Australian Navy Lieutenant Commander Brendan McHarg says locals rely on their crops as food imports are expensive.\nThe average Tuvaluan doesn t earn a lot of money. They are dependant especially on the breadfruit crops he said.\nFood crops are struggling. Breadfruit trees should plentiful but are instead hanging bare and locals are concerned.\nThis is my first time I thought it was really bad. One Tuvaluan woman told ABC.