The Negro river, a tributary of the Amazon river, is facing the worst dry season in decades in the Amazon rainforest.
| Photo Credit: AFP

As the Amazon drought rages on, public authorities in Brazil are scrambling to deliver food and water to thousands of isolated communities throughout a vast and roadless territory, where boats are the only means of transportation.

Across Amazonas state, which has a territory the size of three Californias, 59 out of its 62 municipalities are under state of emergency, impacting 633,000 people. In the capital Manaus, Negro River — a major tributary of the Amazon — has reached its lowest level since official measurements began 121 years ago.

One of the most impacted cities is Careiro da Varzea, near Manaus by the Amazon River. On Tuesday, the municipality distributed emergency kits using an improvised barge originally designed to transport cattle.

The Associated Press accompanied the delivery to two communities. It docked miles away from them, requiring residents, most of them small farmers and fishermen, to walk long distances through former riverbeds turned into endless sand banks and mud.

Each family received a basic food package and 20 liters of water, enough for just a few days but a heavy burden to carry under the scorching heat.

“I will have to carry the food package on my back for half an hour,” Moisés Batista de Souza, a small farmer from Sao Lazaro community, told the AP. He said the biggest problem is getting drinkable water. To reach the closest source demands a long walk from his house.

“Everybody in Careiro da Varzea has been affected by the drought,” said Jean Costa de Souza, chief of Civil Defense of Careiro da Varzea, a municipality of 19,600 people, most living in rural areas. “Unfortunately, people don’t have water. Some lost their crops, while others couldn’t transport their output.” Costa de Souza said the municipality will finish next week the first round of deliveries to all rural communities. Other two rounds are under planning, pending on receiving aid from state and federal governments.

Dry spells are part of the Amazon’s cyclical weather pattern, with lighter rainfall from May to October for most of the rainforest. The season is being further stretched this year by two climate phenomena: the warming of northern tropical Atlantic Ocean waters and El Niño — the warming of surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region — which will peak between December and January.

A little boy walks across a dry, cracked area of the Negro River near his houseboat during a drought in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, on October 16, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Negro River, the Amazon’s second largest tributary, on Monday reached its lowest level since official measurements began near Manaus 121 years ago. The record confirms that this part of the world’s largest rainforest is suffering its worst drought, just a little over two years after its most significant flooding.

In the morning, the water level in the city’s port went as low as 13.5 metres (44.3 feet), down from 30.02 metres (98.5 feet) registered in June 2021 — its highest level on record. The Negro River drains about 10% of the Amazon basin and is the world’s sixth largest by water volume.

Madeira River, another main tributary of the Amazon, has also recorded historically low levels, causing the halt of the Santo Antonio hydroelectric dam, Brazil’s fourth largest.

Throughout Brazil’s Amazon, low river levels have left hundreds of riverine communities isolated and struggling to get access to drinkable water. The drought also has disrupted commercial navigation that supplies Manaus, a city of 2 million with a large industrial park.

Manaus is the largest city and capital of Amazonas, the state hit hardest by the drought. In late September, 55 of 62 municipalities there entered states of emergency due to the severe drought.

“There is no more water to go through. Navigation is over,” boatman Cledson Lopes Brasil told The Associated Press.

Brasil operates in Marina do Davi port, a getaway to dozens of riverine communities, some of them with sandy beaches that attract tourists. The once bustling area is now surrounded by parched soil, with many boathouses high and dry.

For one month now, Brasil has switched to a lower-powered boat, better suited for shallow waters. Still, he can’t reach most communities along Taruma-Açu, a tributary of the Negro River. Some riverine dwellers must walk up to three hours to reach their houses — and tourism has stopped altogether.

Manaus and other nearby cities are also suffering from high temperatures and heavy smoke from nearby man-caused fires for deforestation and pasture clearance. The drought is also the likely cause of dozens of river dolphin deaths in Tefe Lake, near the Amazon River.

Also read | More than 100 dolphins found dead in Brazilian Amazon as water temperatures soar

This is a startling contrast to July 2021, when Negro River waters took over part of the Manaus downtown area. The historic flood, which also ruined crops of hundreds of riverine communities, lasted for about three months.

Philip Fearnside, an American researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research, a public agency, expects the situation to deteriorate, both during the ongoing event and in the future with increasing frequency and severity of similar events with climate change.

He said surface water in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is now warmer than during the “Godzilla” El Niño of 2015-2016 and is expanding. In the Amazon, these Pacific warmings primarily lead to droughts in the northern part of the region.

Moreover, a warm water patch in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean is causing drought in the southern part of the Amazon, similar to what happened in 2005 and 2010, according to researchers.

“The forecast is for the start of the rains to be delayed compared to normal, and for a drier-than-normal rainy season,” Mr. Fearnside said. “This could result not only in extreme low water this year, but also low levels in 2024. Until the rainy season begins in the basin, the situation that is already underway should worsen.”