Amazon River levels drop due to lack of rain, affecting navigation By Reuters

By Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Last year’s record drought in the Amazon (NASDAQ: ) and less-than-usual rainfall since then caused river water levels to drop rapidly, hampering the navigation of barges carrying grain for export and disrupting communities that depend on the transport river.

The Brazilian Geological Survey (SGB) has warned that water levels have been falling since June and that all rivers in the Amazon basin are expected to fall below their historic levels.

In Manaus, the Rio Negro River is 21 meters deep, down from 24 meters at the same time in 2023, which is starting to worry industries in the Free Zone, where companies have asked to begin dredging the river to avoid disruption from last year. of transport.

Dredging has begun at critical points in the Madeira River where only low-draft vessels can pass, according to the government’s transport infrastructure department DNIT. Dredging works are being contracted for the main Amazon and Solimoes rivers, DNIT said.

Last year’s drought prevented barges from using some ports on the Amazon River, and the outlook for this year is even worse, consultancy ARGUS said.

“This could lead to the rerouting of grain and fertilizer cargoes in the coming months to Itaqui and other ports in the south and southeast of Brazil,” ARGUS said in a study predicting increased transport costs for producers.

In Porto Velho, Rondonia state, the Madeira River has been below two meters since July, when its normal depth is 5.3 meters, the SGB said. The river has two hydroelectric dams, Jirau and Santo Antonio, and shipping is affected on one of the main waterways in northern Brazil.

In the Amazon region, communities face isolation due to the river’s lower navigability. Residents cannot travel to buy food and crops are affected, in addition to fish being killed when streams dry up, hurting riverside communities that make a living from fishing.

“In normal drought, the rivers have enough volume to carry food, small boats. But not now. They have dried up and people are isolated,” said climatologist Jose Marengo.

More rain was expected in the second half of this year thanks to the La Niña phenomenon that cooled the waters of the Pacific near the Equator, which should bring more moisture to northern Brazil and dry weather to the south.

This year, however, the waters of the Pacific did not cool as expected, which, combined with the lack of rain in 2023, led to a catastrophic situation in the Amazon, said Marengo, coordinator of Research and Development at the National Nature Center. Disaster monitoring and alerts (Cemaden).

A lack of rain in the Amazon will deprive southern areas of moisture through “flying rivers” that carry water vapor rising from the rainforest into the sub-Amazon savanna region and further into southern Brazil, said Marengo, who helped invent the term. for invisible currents of moist air.