Families move to canoes in search of water in the Amazon – 10/18/2023 – Environment

On the edge of one of the largest river archipelagos in the world, entire riverside families have moved into canoes to be closer to the water.

The extreme drought in this part of the Amazon, which has left the Rio Negro at a level never seen in recent history, has been producing forced displacement and ways of life and housing unimaginable for a place so humid and so marked by watercourses in normal times.

The river archipelago of Anavilhanas, between Manaus and Novo Airão (AM), has more than 400 islands and 60 lakes, in the course of the Negro River. According to technicians from ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), which manages the Anavilhanas National Park, it is the second largest archipelago of its kind in the world.

The historic drought has direct impacts on the archipelago. It produces more islands and sandbars, drains water, alters the landscape, makes streams disappear and isolates riverside communities. There are 54 around the park, living mainly from subsistence fishing in the archipelago.

A Sheet was in the archipelago this Tuesday (17) and found that, in addition to all these effects, the extreme drought has been causing families to move towards the water.

Large canoes anchored on sand banks have become houses, a way of life that has lasted months for some families — and which should last until December, according to the predictions of the riverside dwellers themselves.

The house canoes are an hour’s boat ride from Novo Airão. The report found eight families living this way.

“I’ve never lived like this, in a canoe”, says Carlos Alberto da Silva, 53, one of the residents of one of the boats. “This is the worst drought. Before the water came even close to the community.”

The families who moved into the wooden boats, covered with a canvas structure, are from the Renascer community, which is more than four kilometers in a straight line from the sandbank that became the new address for the riverside dwellers.

The community was isolated with the river’s descent. It is reached by small boats, but on journeys that last hours. Residents were left without access to water and without good conditions to travel to fish for jaraqui and peacock bass.

Therefore, the solution found was to move to canoes stranded on sandbanks on the edge of the Anavilhanas river archipelago.

Families that have houses further away in the community — and, therefore, more isolated, since the moment zero of the prolonged drought — have been in the canoes for longer, for more than two months.

Fisherman Carlos Silva has been with his family for a month in the canoe that has become his home. He, his wife, a stepson, his wife and three children sleep in hammocks in the canoe.

The water they consume is drinkable, the result of a donation. But it was not always so. Previously, they consumed water from the Negro River itself, without filtering or treatment. As drinking water is running out, the gallons must be refilled again in Negro.

“We only go home to get flour when we’re running out, containers and take care of the chickens and dogs,” says Silva. “The only way back there is when the river floods. That should be the end of November, beginning of December.”

During other droughts, the family improvised a shack at the mouth of the canal that leads to the community. This time, the river fell so much that it was necessary to convert canoes into houses, to be close to the watercourse.

Silva’s daughter lives in another canoe, a 20-minute walk away along the sandbank that appeared. The vessel she occupies is flanked by three other house canoes.

On Tuesday, Silva’s daughter went to the community to recharge her cell phone. This Wednesday (18), a new trip was planned, to Novo Airão, to receive the Bolsa Família — which is why there is a need for a charged cell phone.

Commuting to the community, done once or twice a month, requires almost an entire day for riverside dwellers. They leave early, around 8am, and arrive back at the canoes around 3pm.

“At home, there was clean water nearby. But I’m afraid that someone will get sick there and we won’t be able to get out,” says Silva.

Solar energy signs, donated to Silva’s family, guarantee a point of light in the canoe. The children do schoolwork delivered by a boatman who collects them from the school in the community.

The drought impacts small and large riverside communities that live off symbiosis with the archipelago. This is the case of the Sobrado community, which is 40 minutes by boat from Novo Airão, between the city and the sandbanks where the canoes used as houses are located.

The stream at the back has dried up, and there are residents living more than five kilometers from the community’s central point. The Rio Negro, ahead, no longer offers swimming conditions.

Families resort to waterholes to try to extract water with minimal conditions of use. These cacimbas are square-shaped wooden structures close to water holes, in order to dam water and block sediments.

A large part of Sobrado, where 129 families live, is served by an artesian well. But there is already a lack of water in the well.

“Those who live in streams use a well every year. Not everyone has a well, and there are more people using a water well during this year’s drought,” says Aldeni Teixeira da Silva, 38, member of the Association of Agricultural Producers of the Community of Sobrado and tour guide .

“There has never been a drought like this. A beach appeared in the middle of the river that never appeared. What was a canal became a beach. We never imagined that”, says Teixeira.

What water remains in the stream is unfit for use. They are pools of still water, loaded with sediment, with decomposing fish, fetid.

The drought impacts routine in Anavilhanas National Park. Illegal activities such as sport fishing and chelonian hunting became more frequent, due to the greater ease of capturing these animals.

“All communities are having difficulty accessing drinking water”, says Enrique Salazar, environmental analyst at ICMBio in Anavilhanas. “Whoever has a well has muddy water.”

Novo Airão is 200 km from the center of Manaus. Both cities are bathed by the Negro River. Last Monday (16), a record was broken: the river reached its lowest level in the capital, 13.59 m, in 120 years of measurement by the Port of Manaus. And the river continues to leak, a sign of the prolongation of the drought. This Wednesday, the measurement indicated a level of 13.38 m.

The extreme, longer-lasting and unpredictable drought will prolong the stay of Silva’s family and other families in canoes anchored on sandbanks on the edge of Anavilhanas.

Jean, 14, one of Silva’s sons, is one of the canoe’s residents. He spends his days on the sandbanks.

“Would you prefer to live in the community or here on the beach, in a canoe?”, asks the reporter.

“Here,” he replies.

“Why?”

“Because it’s sad there,” says the teenager.

“And why is it sad?”

“Because there’s no one.”