MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Worst drought in forty years threatens Amazon basin

The worst drought in forty years is causing disaster in the world's most extended forest rain in the Amazon basin with innumerable fires, diseases to its inhabitants because of the contamination of the river and killing million of fish as rivers dry up.

Four Brazilian cities in the Amazon jungle have been declared disaster areas as rivers on which thousands of families depend on to receive food and medicine, dry up. By declaring Manaquiri, Atalaia do Norte, Anori and Caapiranga disaster areas, the Amazon state government will be able to receive federal aid.

A similar situation faces Peru in the Amazon jungle region with the city of Iquitos virtually isolated because the river is to low for vessels to sail.

With the rivers drying up drinking water has also become scarce, said Brazilian Amazon state fire department official Col. Mario Belota, a coordinator of the state's relief efforts. He said workers have been sent to dig wells in Manaquiri, about 2,650 kilometers northwest of Sao Paulo.

"The little water that exists in the rivers is polluted," he added. Piranhas in ten centimeters deep Parana do Mannaquiri river, once a navigable Amazon affluent, can be seen desperately resisting inevitable death.

Col. Belota also fears a yellow fever epidemic in the region because vaccines are not reaching the region on a regular basis. Another 17 cities and towns declared a state of alert and the federal government may be asked to provide help by furnishing boats and helicopters, Belota said.

Many cities in the vast Amazon region have little or no road access and rely on rivers for transportation. But a shortage of rain during several months caused the level of the Amazon River to drop to 15.8 meters, far below the average low of 17.6 meters, said the Brazilian government's Geological Service.

In Tabatinga, near the Colombian border, the Solimoes River, a major Amazon tributary, has dropped to 1.5 meters, the lowest ever recorded, the Geological Service's Jayme Azevedo da Silva said.

The level of the Amazon rises and falls regularly, but this year the dry season has been more severe than usual. The fires that farmers and ranchers use to clear the forest have helped raise the temperature in the western Amazon, da Silva said, helping to quickly evaporate the little rain that fell this year.

Rainfall in July was 30.8 millimeters, 65% less than the average of 87.5 millimeters. In June and August rainfall was about two-thirds the normal amount. Water levels are expected to rise in early November at the start of the rainy season.

Some scientists believe the high ocean temperatures caused by the global greenhouse effect have a direct influence but they also believe that an unusual active and deadly hurricane season in United States and Central America could be to blame.

"The ascending air mass in the north Atlantic could have caused air to descend over the Amazon which has impeded the formation of clouds and rain", said meteorologist Dan Nepstadt from the Wood Hole Research Institute in Massachusetts.