The Rio Negro, the largest tributary on the left bank of the Amazon River, has hit its lowest water level in 122 years, measuring just 12.66 meters in the Manaus region. This alarming situation, attributed to global climate change, puts the lives of over 500,000 people at risk as further declines are anticipated in the coming days.
Other tributaries of the Amazon, such as the Solimões and Madeira rivers, are also experiencing historically low levels. According to the Amazonas state government, 62 cities in the region are in a state of emergency due to the severe drought affecting more than half a million residents.
In Iranduba, a community along the riverbank known as Cacau Pirêra, about 90 families live in floating houses. Fishing is the primary source of livelihood for 90% of these households. Under normal conditions, residents could navigate by boat even when the river levels fluctuated. However, since 2023, extreme droughts have led to prolonged dry spells, leaving floating homes and boats stranded on the sandbanks.
Rogério Marinho, a climate and environment professor at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), explains that the Amazon River basin is a large depression that had been filled with sediment over time. While the emergence of sandbanks during severe droughts is a natural phenomenon, the frequency and intensity of these events currently are anything but normal.
Residents in these riverbank communities express their concerns, noting that severe droughts used to occur only once every 20 to 30 years. Now, such conditions are happening in less than a decade, with increasing frequency, intensity, and duration.
Marinho attributes some of the drought’s intensity to the El Niño phenomenon, which warms the Pacific waters and hinders rainfall in the Amazon region. Additionally, warming in the Atlantic also diminishes precipitation in these areas.
Ronilson Silva, a 38-year-old riverbank resident, shared that the drying river means the resources they depend on for survival are also vanishing. He lamented that the last time he went fishing was in mid-September; after casting his net six times, he only caught 25 fish.
In response to the drought, the federal government of Brazil announced it would provide emergency assistance to affected fishermen in the northern region, although specific details were not provided. Meanwhile, the Iranduba city government has begun distributing basic food baskets and drinking water to the most severely impacted and isolated communities, though residents of Cacau Pirêra have yet to receive humanitarian aid.
