MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Poor rain forecast heralds low water levels for Paraguay River until December

“We are now with a flow of 900 m³ per second, which is very low. The Paraguay River has a normal flow of over 4,000 m³ per second,” Martínez explained

Poor rainfalls are expected to keep affecting the already low Paraguay River, according to local and foreign experts who gathered Wednesday in Asunción at the invitation of the Meteorology and Hydrology Directorate (DMH). Hence, there were no encouraging forecasts at least until December this year.

“There is a high probability that we will enter a La Niña phenomenon in October. But what is expected is that this stage of intense drought will last until December and then we would have an increase in the flow of the Paraguay River in the different stretches,” Benjamín Martínez of Paraguay's National Administration of Navigation and Ports (ANNP) explained. The ANNP's Dredging Department engineer made those remarks after the seminar “Historical low of the Paraguay River ” (2024). Situation and perspectives, held this week virtually, which was also attended by representatives of the School of Engineering of the National University of Asuncion (FIUNA), the National Water Institute (INA) of Argentina, Itaipu, Yacyretá (EBY), and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).

“We are going to be below a normal rainfall level. Rainfall is expected, but we are going to be below the level of what would be considered normal for the time of year. We are also expecting perhaps no distributed rain, which means heavy spot rains, and then a period of no rain. That is to say, many millimeters will fall in a single day and then many days without rain again,” Martínez also pointed out.

”Probably, it will be the same as what happened last week, it improved seven centimeters (the Paraguay River) and parked there. We had -1.14 m, then we reached -1.07 m, -1.06 m and it stayed there,“ he added about this week's situation in the port of Asuncion.

”We are now with a flow of 900 m³ per second, which is very low. The Paraguay River has a normal flow of over 4,000 m³ per second. What is expected is that throughout October and most of November, we will continue with this flow trend. That is to say, with low flow. Therefore, this is what will cause us to still have these levels and probably a little lower“, he also noted.

To make matters worse for Paraguay's barge services, Argentina raised as by 40% the toll on the Paraguay-Parana waterway. Buenos Aires deemed it ”fair and reasonable” to go up to US$ 4.3 per net registered ton (NRT) for international shipping and AR$ 824.8 (US$ 0.83) per NRT for domestic operations, which represented an adjustment in line with consumer price index (CPI) on a quarterly basis.