MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Amazonian rivers in Brazil hit by severe drought

A state of emergency has been declared in local municipalities

According to reports released in Brazil Tuesday, the Solimões River has dried up and has become a desert while the Negro River in Manaus has reached historic levels of drought and nearing figures similar to those recorded during the Oct. 2010 crisis.

The Solimões River, one of the largest in the Amazon, has been transformed into a desert. The indigenous community of Porto Praia (Beach Port) must walk 2 kilometers to find the water and its fish as reports of diarrhea and vomiting caused by muddy waters mount.

In this scenario, the Alto Solimões municipalities of Tabatinga, Benjamin Constant, Atalaia do Norte, São Paulo de Olivença, Amaturá, Santo Antônio do Içá, Tonantins, Jutaí, and Fonte Boa declared an emergency.

Meanwhile, the Negro River in Manaus, the main tributary of the Amazon, reached its lowest flow in 120 years on Monday and the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) forecast that levels should fall even further due to the drought extending in the region until early November.

Local media pointed out that this year's drought has been exacerbated by climate change and the effects of El Niño, a phenomenon that limits the formation of rainfall.

In addition, the 153 dolphins found dead last month in the Tefé River, one of the tributaries of the Amazon, due to drought in the area were said to represent 10% of their local population and belonged to the endangered pink and tucuxi species, according to a statement from WWF Brazil and the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute (IDSM), an institution linked to Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology that develops sustainable development programs in Tefé, a city in the state of Amazonas.

”From September 23 to the beginning of October, with the drought advancing strongly in the Amazon and water temperatures rising, 153 dead dolphins were found in the region: 130 pink dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) and 23 tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis),“ WWF Brazil said.

These two species of cetacean mammals are at serious risk of extinction and have one of their main populations in the so-called Tefé Lake, as the region where the river of the same name widens before flowing into the Amazon is known.

In just one day, on September 28, when the water temperature in the region reached 39.1 degrees Celsius, the bodies of 70 dolphins were found. The most probable cause for the unusual mortality was the rise in water temperature, WWF-Brazil biologist Mariana Paschoalini Frias explained.

”Of all the variables analyzed so far, the one that has shown the greatest alteration is water temperature, which reinforces the hypothesis that dolphin mortality is linked to climate change, the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, and extreme drought,“ she said. Although the average maximum water temperature in Lake Tefé is 32 degrees Celsius, in the last days of September it reached 40 degrees Celsius, which ”certainly generated thermal stress in the animals,” she added.

The current drought in the Amazon, the most severe in the last century, threatens the supply of food, fuel, and even water in many areas of the world's largest rainforest.