The Brazilian Amazon is experiencing a historic drought that is pushing its residents to their limits. The lack of rain has led to a sharp decline in river flow, already affecting drinking water supplies and subsistence agriculture, and leaving hundreds of thousands of people living incommunicado in the most remote and vulnerable areas. from Brasil. The rivers in the north of the country are like water highways, practically everyone (and food, shops, medicine) moves on the river. Authorities estimate that food and water shortages could affect more than half a million people in the coming weeks.
“All communities will be isolated. Here our river is only 20 centimeters deep, we have to drag the canoes,” explains Adamor Lima, chief of the Capanã indigenous area, by telephone from the jungle. It takes the 150 residents of their village eight hours by boat downstream to reach the nearest town of Manicoré, where they usually go once a month to run errands and shop. The larger ships (with cheaper tickets) no longer sail this route. The river is covered by sand banks and rocks that make navigation impossible. The fish that Adamor caught every day in front of his house are also not there. The water is too hot, now they are concentrated in a deeper bend in the river that is very difficult to access. Not far from his village, a huge hydroelectric power station on the Madeira River stopped its turbines on Monday due to a lack of water. It is the fourth largest in the country and supplies energy to all of Brazil, but the government says there is currently no risk of blackouts. In indigenous villages and riverside populations where drinking water is scarce and water is taken directly from the river, drought can be the prelude to a health crisis. It is the great paradox: the inhabitants of the region with the largest freshwater reserves in the world lack water.
Children bathe before going to school in Manaus (Amazon State). Authorities say more than 110,000 people are affected by the drought as dead fish affect access to food and contaminate the main water source.Edmar Barros (AP)
Some Amazon tributaries were filled with dead fish last month due to drought and high temperatures in the region. In the picture, boatman Paulo Monteiro, 49, navigates among thousands of dead fish in Manacapuru, Amazonas state, Brazil, on September 27. Raphael Alves (EFE)
A flock of herons and wild ducks in the shallow waters of the Lago de Piranha Sustainable Development Reserve in Manacapuru, on September 27. Raphael Alves (EFE)
Boats and houses became stranded in Manaus on September 29 due to low water levels in the Negro River, the largest tributary of the Amazon. According to the NGO Amazon Working Group, the level of the Negro River is falling by 20 centimeters every day. BRUNO KELLY (Portal)
A researcher from the Mamiraua Institute for Sustainable Development recovered the bodies of two Amazon pink dolphins in Lake Tefé on October 2, 2023. BRUNO KELLY (Portal)
Around 100 pink dolphins have died in Lake Tefé in recent days. The bodies of at least 70 of them came to the surface as the lake water reached a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius. In the picture, researchers from the Mamiraua Institute carry out a forensic analysis of a pink dolphin that was killed during the heatwave. BRUNO KELLY (Portal)
A man carries his son across the Negro River to take him to school, September 26. In Manaus, the state capital, which is in an emergency situation, the drought is expected to peak in the second half of October, according to the Geological Survey of Brazil.Edmar Barros (AP)
A heron flies over thousands of dead fish in drought-stricken Piranha Lake on September 27. BRUNO KELLY (Portal)
A tree marked with a white cloth indicating the navigation track illustrates the drop in water level at the entrance to Piranha Lake in Manacapuru (Amazon State). BRUNO KELLY (Portal)
Thousands of dead fish in Piranha Lake in Manacapuru. Raphael Alves (EFE)
Researchers collect the body of a pink dolphin in Lake Tefé on October 1st. BRUNO KELLY (Portal)
The bed of Lake Aleixo in Manaus, adjacent to the Amazon River, on September 30. Of the 62 municipalities in the state of Amazonas, 59 are affected by low river and lake levels. Raphael Alves (EFE)
In 2010, a drought brought the Amazon to its lowest levels on record, with catastrophic consequences. According to Ane Alencar, director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), these levels have not yet been reached, but there is potential to reach this level and it reflects what the new normal might look like in the future. Pictured are thousands of fish killed by the heat and acidity of the water in Lake Piranha on September 27. Raphael Alves (EFE)
Above all, drought is a major environmental disaster. More than 125 dolphins have been found dead in the Lake Tefé region in recent days. The corpses of the famous botos, protagonists of countless local legends, are now bait for vultures. According to the Mamirauá Institute, which is carrying out an urgent rescue operation, the high water temperature would be the main cause of death, as it reached almost 40 degrees. The tragedy lies in the water, but also in the treetops. With the air drier than ever, this is the ideal time for deforesters to burn vegetation and free up land for pastures. According to official data, there were 6,991 fire outbreaks in September, the second worst record since 1998.
The collateral damage of extreme drought is omnipresent. In the small village of Vila Arumã, fewer than 1,000 people live in small houses scattered along the banks of the Purus River on a kind of sandy cliff. Last week a landslide swallowed half the city. Two people died and 45 houses disappeared. “It was nothing normal, it was like a black hole that swallowed our entire neighborhood,” explains Kely Regina Dantas, a public school worker who now lives underground, sobbing. The so-called “fallen lands” phenomenon is relatively common during the dry season, but this year it has become worse. When the water that supports the weight of the land in the water table disappears, the earth simply crumbles. “We have been awake for several nights, my husband and my son, we take turns. “The neighborhood is full of cracks,” he says. The fear of tragedy goes hand in hand with the uncertainty of how to fill the fridge. The main source of income for this family is fishing for pirarucú, a fish that easily weighs over 100 kilos. Now fishing is impossible because the fish live isolated in lakes and transport by boat is impossible. “At the rate things are moving, we don’t know what will happen to us. Everything here comes directly from Manaus, which is almost two days away by boat. If we remain incommunicado, I don’t know how we will survive,” Kely added.
Aerial view of two ships stranded on a sandbank near Manaus, Amazonas state (Brazil). Raphael Alves (EFE)
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In Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, a city of more than two million inhabitants nestled in the jungle, there is an important industrial center where the entire national production of televisions, dishwashers and air conditioners is concentrated. Businesspeople in the rest of the country are already worried about being left at the gates of Black Friday with empty shelves because of all the goods leaving the city in trucks on rafts that could stop floating at any moment.
Armed forces
The Brazilian authorities have currently declared a state of emergency in 55 municipalities, where baskets of non-perishable food and water as well as hygiene and health packages are already being distributed. The government promised logistical support from the Air Force and Navy with proven experience in reaching the furthest corners of the jungle, as is the case during elections, when electronic ballot boxes arrive by helicopter or canoe if necessary.
During the dry season in the Amazon (roughly July to December), it is normal for rivers to drop several meters and create beaches and sandbanks, although there are several anomalies this year, according to the coordinator of the Sustainable Amazon Foundation (FAS). ). , Virgilio Viana. El Niño bears some of the blame, as this climate phenomenon prevents clouds and rain from forming. However, the scenario has been made worse by the abnormal warming of North Atlantic waters linked to climate change. “El Niño occurs again and again, what we are now seeing is an increase in its magnitude,” says the specialist.
This NGO, like many others in the region, has already mobilized and is distributing chlorine, water purifiers and gasoline in the villages. Not so much because of the motorboats that will soon be stranded, but because of the small engines with which the Amazon residents use cassava flour as the basis of their diet, in addition to fish. Viana, who was environment minister in the Amazon government 20 years ago, admits that these are all urgent solutions and that it is necessary to think about long-term solutions, such as relying on solar panels, the Internet and family farming to provide more autonomy for the communities, villages and towns that are now on the brink of collapse. “We have to prepare for the next disasters, it’s about resilience and adapting to climate change.”
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