Indigenous people ask for declaration of climate emergency due to drought – 10/10/2023 – Environment

Indigenous people in the Amazon are asking the Brazilian government to declare a climate emergency as their villages have no drinking water, food or medicine due to a severe drought affecting rivers vital for transport in the forest, local leaders said on Tuesday (10). .

The drought and heat wave killed large quantities of fish in the rivers where indigenous people live, and the water in the streams and tributaries of the Amazon River became unfit for consumption, said Apiam (Articulation of Organizations and Indigenous Peoples of Amazonas) , which represents 63 peoples from the Amazon.

“We ask the governments of the Amazon, Brazil and the world to declare a climate emergency and do something urgently to address the enormous climate and social vulnerability to which indigenous peoples and traditional populations are exposed,” Apiam said in a statement.

The Rio Negro, Solimões, Madeira, Juruá and Purus rivers are drying up at a record pace, and forest fires are destroying the tropical forest in new areas in the lower Amazon, Apiam said in the note.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva told Reuters in late September that the government was preparing a task force to provide emergency assistance to the drought-stricken Amazon region. The government sent tens of thousands of basic food baskets to communities isolated due to the lack of river transport.

The region is under pressure from the El Niño climate phenomenon, with rainfall in the north of the Amazon below the historical average.

The most serious problem for indigenous communities that do not have running water is sanitation, now that river water cannot be drunk, said Mariazinha Baré, coordinator of Apiam.

“The smaller streams and rivers have dried up. What’s left is mud,” Baré said in an interview. “People have to take long walks to find water. With the poor quality of the water, people are getting sick.”

Impassable rivers make it difficult to access medical assistance in Amazonian villages, and rain is not expected until late November or early December, when the rivers and their fish population normally renew, Baré also said.

The Madeira River is no longer navigable in its upper reaches, isolating indigenous villages and non-indigenous communities that depend on collecting fruit in the forest, but are unable to sell their products.

Ivaneide Bandeira, who runs the indigenous organization Kanindé in the state of Rondônia, said isolated non-indigenous communities were asking indigenous villages for food.

She said smoke from wildfires is worse than ever, which is affecting the health of the elderly and children.

“It’s not just El Niño. There’s deforestation that’s there, the fires that are there. These people don’t stop to think. Agribusiness doesn’t stop, it’s going, it’s destroying everything. They don’t seem to see what’s happening to nature,” he said.