Drought in Brazil’s Amazon heightens fears for the future

Communities that depend on the waterways of the Amazon jungle They are isolated, without receiving supplies of fuel, food or filtered water. Dozens of river dolphins died and washed ashore. And thousands of lifeless fish float on the surface of the water.

Water levels drop historically

These are just some of the first grim images of the extreme drought sweeping the Brazilian Amazon. Historically low water levels have affected hundreds of people and wildlife, and after experts predicted the drought could last until 2024, the problems seem poised to intensify.

Raimundo Silva do Carmo, 67, makes his living as a fisherman, but these days he has struggled simply to find water. Like many rural residents of the Brazilian Amazon, Silva often draws untreated water from the biome’s abundant waterways. On Thursday morning he was making his fourth trip of the day to fill a plastic bucket from a well dug in the cracked bed of Lake Puraquequara, east of Manaus, the state capital. Amazon.

“It’s a terrible job, even more so when the sun is so hotSilva told The Associated Press. “We use water to drink, bathe, cook. No water, no life”.

Joaquim Mendes da Silva, a 73-year-old boat carpenter who has lived by the same lake for 43 years, said this drought is the worst he can remember. Children in the area stopped going to school a month ago because it became impossible to reach them by the river.

Eight Brazilian states have recorded the lowest rainfall in the period from July to September in the last 40 years, according to the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN, by its Portuguese acronym). The drought has affected most of the major rivers in the Amazonthe largest basin in the world, where 20% of the planet’s fresh water is found.

Amazon is declared in a state of emergency

By Friday, 42 of the 62 municipalities in the Amazon They had declared a state of emergency. So far, about 250,000 people have been affected by the drought, and that number could double by the end of the year, according to the state’s civil defense authority.

In the Auati-Paraná Extractive Reserve, about 720 kilometers (450 miles) west of Lake Puraquequara, more than 300 riverside families struggle to obtain food and other supplies. Only small, lightly loaded canoes can make the trip to the nearest town, and choosing a route through shallow water increases travel time from 9 to 14 hours.

In addition, the canals leading to the lakes where they fish for pirarucú, the largest fish in the Amazon and their main source of income, have dried up, and transporting fish weighing up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) along trails would be extremely heavy.

“We run the risk of catching fish in the lake and having them arrive spoiled. So there’s no way we’re fishing”said Edvaldo de Lira, president of the local association.

Drought periods are part of the cyclical climate pattern of the Amazon, with less rain from May to October in much of the jungle. That already low precipitation was further reduced this year due to two meteorological phenomena: The boy —the natural warming of the water surface in the equatorial Pacific region—, and the warming of the waters in the tropical north of the Atlantic Ocean, said Ana Paula Cunha, CEMADEN researcher.

Climate change is the main factor of disasters

He global warmingdriven by the burning of fossil fuels, is the backdrop to these intensified phenomena. The increase in temperatures increases the probability of extreme weather, although the attribution of specific events to the climate change It is complex and requires in-depth studies. Still, as global temperatures rise and the effects of climate change become more severe, the drought and its devastating consequences could be a preview of a bleak future, experts say.

Average global temperatures soared to a record high in September. Overwhelming heat waves have spread across vast swaths of Brazil in recent months, even though it was winter. In the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, devastating floods left dozens of people dead.

Droughts have become more frequent in the Madeira river of the Amazonwhose basin extends about 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) from Bolivia to Brazil, with four of the five lowest river levels recorded in the last four years, said Marcus Suassuna Santos, a researcher at the Geological Survey of Brazil.

The level of the Madeira in Porto Velho is the lowest since records began in 1967. Nearby, Brazil’s fourth-largest hydroelectric dam, the Santo Antonio plant, suspended operations this week for the first time since it was established. inaugurated in 2012.

Further north, in the Negro River basin, another pattern emerged. The main tributary of the Amazon has suffered seven of its largest floods in the last 11 years, of which the worst was in 2021. But the Negro River is also heading towards its lowest water level this year.

“We are already experiencing a scenario of an altered climate that oscillates between extreme events, whether drought or heavy rains. This has very serious consequences not only for the environment, but also for people and the economy.“said Ane Alencar, director of science at the Institute of Amazon Environmental Research (IPAM, for its acronym in Portuguese), a non-profit organization.

“I think there is a very high probability that what we are currently experiencing, the oscillation, is the new normal“Alencar added.

He Brazilian government has created a task force to coordinate a response. Ministers from the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited Manaus on Tuesday. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin promised food, drinking water and fuel to isolated communities, and said payments from the Bolsa Familia social program would be brought forward. Work is underway to dredge sections of two rivers – the Solimoes and the Madeira – to improve navigability.

The heat, along with low water levels in receding rivers, are suspected to have caused more than 140 dolphins to die in Lake Tefe, about 480 kilometers (300 miles) east of Manaus. Images of that event made headlines in Brazil and elsewhere along with images of vultures pecking at their stranded carcasses. The excessive heat could have caused organ failure, said Hayan Fleischmann, a hydrologist at the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute.

Another hypothesis is that it was due to bacteria, with the abnormally warm waters serving as an additional stress factor.

“It is an unprecedented tragedy. Here in the region, no one has ever seen anything like it.Fleischmann said. “It was a shock for everyone”.

Forest fires suffocate surrounding areas

Rainfall is forecast to be below average until the end of next year, according to the National Space Research Institute. The impact of the drought already extends beyond the waterways of the Amazonand it is reaching the jungle.

Forested areas along river banks accumulate a thick layer of dry leaves on the ground, making them particularly susceptible to fires, said Flávia Costa, a researcher at the National Amazon Research Institute.

In it state of amazon almost 7,000 were reported fires in September alone, the second highest amount in the month since satellite monitoring began in 1998.

The resulting smoke is suffocating the more than 2 million residents of Manaus, who also experience stifling heat. Last Sunday, the city registered its highest temperature since constant measurements began in 1910.

The increase in the frequency of extreme weather events intensifies the need for coordination between federal, regional and municipal governments to prepare and create an alert system in order to mitigate impacts.

“Henceforth“, Alencar warned, “things will get worse”.

With information from AP