Brazil Faces Worst Drought in Decades as Wildfires Devastate Land and Amazon River Reaches Record Low
Brazil is currently enduring its most severe drought since records began over 70 years ago, with over half of the country under significant environmental stress, the Associated Press reports.
This drought, described as the most widespread and intense in Brazil’s history, has led to devastating wildfires and the Amazon River falling to unprecedented low levels.
The effects of the drought are being felt across 59% of the country, an area roughly half the size of the United States. Major rivers in the Amazon basin, including the Amazon and the Madeira, have recorded historic lows, leaving communities stranded and without access to essential resources. Wildfires, many of them manmade, are raging across the country, destroying protected areas and severely degrading air quality in cities as far as Sao Paulo.
Ana Paula Cunha, a researcher at Brazil’s National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the drought.
“This is the first time that a drought has covered all the way from the North to the country’s Southeast. It is the most intense and widespread drought in history,” she said in a recent statement.
The drought has intensified Brazil’s wildfire crisis. As of early September, the country had recorded almost 160,000 fires, the worst fire season since 2010. The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, a popular tourist destination in the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna region, has been hit particularly hard. Fires there have been fueled by an unusually early dry season, strong winds, and extremely low humidity. While some fires have been controlled, others continue to burn, threatening this ecologically important area.
The situation is equally dire in the Amazon basin. The Amazon River, the world’s largest by volume, has reached record low levels at several points, including the city of Tabatinga. One of its tributaries, the Madeira River, has also fallen to historic lows, exacerbating the crisis for riverside communities that rely on the waterway for transportation and survival. Entire villages, including the Tikuna tribe’s community of Fidadelfia, are struggling with a lack of potable water, food shortages, and increasing illnesses from contaminated water.
The drought’s toll on the environment and human life underscores the impact of climate change on Brazil. Myrian Tikuna, a community leader in Fidadelfia, expressed the urgency of the situation.
“This used to be the Amazon River. Now it’s a desert. If things get worse, our people will disappear. Now we are realizing the severity of climate change,” said Tikuna.
Experts predict that significant rainfall will not arrive until October, prolonging the country’s environmental crisis.
