The phenomenon of the ‘Child’ and the climate change have joined hands to provoke in the Brazilian Amazon a historic drought which severely affects in principle half a million people. The flow of the Solimões, Branco, Jutaí and Negro rivers, the latter in Manaus, has dropped so much due to the absence of rain that this dryness scares the riverside inhabitants. According to the National Research Institute of the Amazon (Inpa), the level of the imposing Negro is one of the worst in 120 years of measurements. The Madeira River has lost so much strength that the operation of the South American giant’s Santo Antonio hydroelectric plant has been suspended. “The drought usually lasts until mid-October. It is now expected to last until early November. The situation is likely to get worse“, recognized Renato Senna, climatologist and researcher at Inpa.
The dry season lasts in the Amazon between July and December. During this period the river channels reduce a few meters and sandbanks appear like small islands. Those yellow specks have gotten bigger because this season is exceptional in many ways, in the eyes of specialists. The numbers are eloquent: Of the 62 municipalities of Amazonas, 24 are in an emergency situation, Civil Defense has been accounted for Brazil. The agriculture and the trade through the tributaries are severely affected. The industrial hub of Manaus is already feeling the consequences of these alterations.
“A week ago, we expected 100,000 people to attend. What we projected, and it is being confirmed, is that 500,000 people will be affected,” acknowledged the Minister of National Integration, Waldez Goes.
The government’s reaction
The Brazilian vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, has visited the region and has announced dredging works to facilitate navigation, as well as financial aid of around 25 million euros. The payment of the subsidies intended for poor communities, will be paid compensation to farmers that have suffered losses due to the drought and will study granting similar aid for the riverside population that lives from fishing. “The most urgent thing is water, food and fuel”. The State will in turn seek to guarantee the connection of the thermal power plants affected by the drought. “There will be no shortage of resources. Whoever has needs, send them and they will be attended to,” said Alckmin.
“Climate change is out of control“, assured, for her part, the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva. And the Amazon feels the disturbances. The drought and high temperatures, close to 40 degrees in spring, have caused an enormous mortality of fish and 120 pink freshwater dolphins, a sacred animal, which the native peoples who live near Lake Tefé consider guardians of the aquatic world. Television has shown images of vultures devouring carrion. There are about 900 pink dolphins left in the region. The drought in turn has triggered the fires in the jungle, which always has its least rainy season in September and October.
Brazil said goodbye to winter with temperatures that in some areas of the north and northeast reached 45 degrees. Weeks before, Rio Grande do Sul, at the other end of the country, was affected by unprecedented rains that caused 46 deaths and numerous missing people and which are also associated with the ‘Niño’ phenomenon. A cyclone affected more than 330,000 people in a hundred municipalities in the dream state. The losses were about 270 million dollars. The specialists use the same words with which Minister Silva has referred to what is happening in Amazonas.
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These events have already hit other countries such as Greece and Libya, in the latter case with devastating force. Dakir Larara Machado da Silva, professor of climatology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, has been categorical: “Human lives are seriously affected“. The president himself, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has begun to speak about the climate emergency with unusual gravity. His last intervention took place at the United Nations General Assembly.
Lack of prevention
“The destruction and deaths caused by the rains in Rio Grande do Sul reveal the challenge that Brazil faces in facing extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent every day,” said the Rio de Janeiro newspaper. Or Globe in a recent editorial. “The challenge facing the authorities is twofold. First, new approaches must be developed to provide aid in the most agile and effective way. Funds for reconstruction, help for the homeless, chains of solidarity… everything This is important, but it cannot be done suddenly. The second challenge, and the most important, “is prevention.” But unfortunately, We usually act “when the damage has already been done”. The country “must realize that the climate scenario has changed, and the old responses are no longer sufficient to face extreme events.”