Rios Negro, Solimões, Amazonas and Madeira have record drought – 10/19/2023 – Environment

The extreme drought in the western Amazon produced historic minimum levels in parts of the Negro, Solimões, Amazon and Madeira rivers. This is what data compiled or produced by the Port of Manaus, the SGB (Brazilian Geological Service) and the Civil Defense of Amazonas show.

In Manaus, the Negro River broke a negative record last Monday (16), when the gauge at the Port of Manaus registered 13.59 m – the minimum was 13.63 m, recorded on October 24, 2010.

The river continued to descend throughout the week, and reached a level of 13.29 m this Thursday (19). In 120 years of measurements, there have never been indicators as low as those recorded since Monday.

Historical records were broken in other rivers in the Amazon basin. This Thursday (19), the SGB reported that measuring stations recorded historic lows in Manacapuru (AM), on the lower Solimões River, and in Itacoatiara (AM), on the Amazon River.

In Solimões, the level was 3.61 m, according to information from the SGB. The minimum recorded was 3.92 m, on October 26, 2010. In Amazonas, the measurement was 90 cm, according to the SGB, compared to a negative record of 91 cm on October 24, 2010.

The Madeira River also had historic minimum levels in Nova Olinda do Norte (AM) and Humaitá (AM), surpassing the worst indicators of 1995 and 1969, respectively, according to monitoring carried out by the Civil Defense of Amazonas.

In Porto Velho, the historic low occurred on October 8, at 1.10 m, according to information from the SGB. The minimum recorded was from the previous year.

The significant drop in the river’s water level paralyzed the Santo Antônio hydroelectric plant in Rondônia, the fourth largest in the country, for two weeks. It resumed operations last Monday.

Madeira began to rise following historical indicators. In Humaitá, this increase was 30 cm in five days. In Porto Velho, the measurement showed 1.85 m this Thursday.

The prospect is for a slower rise for the other rivers, but this is already happening, as in the case of the Solimões river. There was rain in Peru and the upper Solimões, in cities such as Tabatinga (AM) and Benjamin Constant (AM), is the first to experience a rise in levels, according to the SGB.

In Tabatinga, the river rose 24 cm in 24 hours, according to the bulletin released by the SGB this Thursday. This should spread through the middle Solimões, where Tefé (AM) and Fonte Boa (AM) are located, to Manacapuru.

The severe drought is the result of a combination of phenomena, such as El Niño, which is an above-average warming in the Pacific Ocean, close to the Equator, and the warming of the North Tropical Atlantic.

The anomalies that El Niño causes in the Amazon, with less rain, will still continue in the region. There has already been below-average rainfall in periods that are already little rainy. Now, this should be repeated during the rainy season in the Amazon.

A Sheet showed in a series of reports the consequences of the drought for riverside communities, indigenous territories and cities on the Solimões and Negro rivers.

Streams have disappeared in the Tefé region, forcing families to get drinking water from the city’s taps.

The Solimões River became a desert, with huge sandbanks, in the vicinity of the Porto Praia de Baixo and Boará/Boarazinho Indigenous Lands, also in Tefé. Indigenous people were isolated, and there are communities with a significant increase in cases of diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and fever due to the consumption of unsafe water.

Red dolphins and tucuxis had to be removed from a cove that went through an overheating process, near the port of Tefé. More than 140 animals died in September.

A family of Ticuna indigenous people lost their home after a ravine on the banks of the Solimões river collapsed, a phenomenon known as fallen land, which has already swept away the village, school and port during this period of extreme drought.

In the Anavilhanas archipelago, on the Rio Negro, entire families had to move into canoes, in order to be closer to the water. The community they are from is isolated, due to the expansion of sandbanks in the region.