Amazon: Drought turns floating village life into mud – 10/08/2023 – Environment

Life is at a standstill for a floating village, now stranded on mudflats formed by the severe drought hitting the Amazon rainforest region.

The main means of transport, motor boats lean in the mud, no longer bringing fish, fruits and vegetables, nor taking tourists to see the meeting of the waters of the Negro and Solimões rivers, where they form the Amazon river.

As Lake Puraquequara dried up, so did business for owners of boats and floating shops stuck in the mud.

“Our stores have no customers. We are isolated, boats cannot enter or leave the lake,” said local resident Isaac Rodrigues. “We will be here until God sends us water.”

The federal government said last week that it is preparing emergency assistance for inhabitants of the Amazon region, hit by the record drought that drained the rivers — their life support.

Just like the floods in the southern region of Brazil, the drought in the Amazon is the result of the El Niño phenomenon, which warms the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean, experts say.

Some rivers that run through the vast Amazon rainforest have accumulated volumes of dead fish as the drought worsens.

The carcasses of around 120 porpoises were found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat.

Things have gotten so bad at Lake Puraquequara that there is little water for drinking or cooking. Ivalmir Silva spent an entire day digging a well in the dry mud.

Shopkeeper Otenísio de Lima said, wearing a cowboy hat to protect himself from the hot sun, that fishermen cannot bring in their fish. Products such as bananas and cabbage stopped arriving, according to him.

“Everything has become very difficult. Sales have dropped and there are days when we barely earn enough to live,” said another shopkeeper, Raimundo Silva do Carmo, as he showered with a bucket of water taken from a well he dug. “Let’s see what God does for us,” he said.