() – Huge tributaries that feed the mighty Amazon River —the largest on the planet— have fallen to historically low levels, affecting lives, stranding ships and threatening endangered dolphins as drought grips Brazil.
According to Cemaden, the country’s natural disaster monitoring center, the country is currently suffering its worst drought since records began in 1950. It is the second consecutive year of extreme drought in Brazil. Almost 60% of the country is affected and some cities, including the capital, Brasilia, suffer more than 140 consecutive days without rain.
In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the impact on rivers is staggering and experts are sounding the alarm about what this means for the region, a hotbed of biodiversity and a crucial buffer against climate change.
The Negro River, one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon River, is at historic lows for this time of year near the city of Manaus, in the state of Amazonas. Its water levels are falling about 17 centimeters per day, according to Brazil’s geological service.
The river’s characteristic black waters usually run through its thick labyrinth of channels, but satellite images now show that it has shrunk dramatically and that large swaths of its bed are exposed.
The Rio Negro is experiencing “extreme drawdowns” as temperatures soar and the region struggles with a shortage of rainfall, said Lincoln Alves, a research scientist at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
The same happens with the Solimões River, whose murky waters converge with the Negro River in Manaus to form the Amazon River.
This month, the Solimões fell to its lowest level on record for this time of year in Tabatinga, a Brazilian city on the border with Colombia and Peru.
The boats were stranded and large expanses of sand can now be seen where the water once flowed.
Lake Tefé, on the north bank of the Solimões River, is also very depleted.
Photographs of the lake taken last month show that its size has shrunk dramatically compared to the same period last year and is continuing to decline. This “contributes to a critical water shortage and affects local ecosystems,” Alves said.
Last year, more than 200 dolphins were found dead in the lake during a drought and record-breaking water temperatures, and experts fear a repeat of this this year.
Dolphin deaths are already occurring. “Last week, we found one a day on average,” he told Reuters Miriam Marmonteldirector of the dolphin project at the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute, earlier this month.
Researchers believe that as the lake shrinks, there is less room for dolphins, putting them at greater risk of collision with boats and ferries.
In many regions of the Amazon “the drought is already more intense today than at the worst moment last year,” said Rómulo Batista, biologist and spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil.
“The minimums in these rivers… usually occur at the end of October,” said Adriana Cuartas, a Cemaden researcher. They have happened before this year and water levels will continue to drop, he told .
The consequences are harsh for the local population who depend on the rivers for food, medicine, livelihoods and transportation, said André Guimarães, executive director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, a nonprofit organization.
“We are experiencing a situation that has never happened before,” he told , adding, “the reduction in river flow is absolutely enormous.”
The severe and prolonged drought that Brazil suffers has been fueled by a set of factors.
An intense El Niño, a natural weather pattern, brought warmer, drier weather to the region last year and into 2024. El Niño is now over, but the heat and drought are being influenced by an unusually hot, said Cuartas de Cemaden.
Deforestation is also a factor, Alves said, contributing to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. “Continued ecosystem degradation is pushing the region toward a potential tipping point,” he said.
Then there’s climate change, driven by the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels, bringing warmer temperatures and longer periods without rain.
Last year’s devastating drought in the Amazon basin was 30 times more likely due to climate changeaccording to a report by World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists that analyzes extreme weather events.
What is happening in Brazil “is a tragic example of the local impact of global climate change,” Guimarães said, referring to the fact that it is often the poorest and least developed countries that feel the weight of the impacts of climate change caused disproportionately by richer countries.
Earlier this month, the environmental group Greenpeace unveiled a huge banner reading “Who Pays?” on the newly exposed sandy banks of the Solimões.
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