Water levels of major tributaries flowing into the Amazon River, the largest river on Earth, have reached record lows, causing boats to run aground, threatening dolphins and people’s livelihoods.
Brazil is currently experiencing its worst drought since 1950, according to Cemaden, the country’s natural disaster monitoring center. This is the second consecutive year of extreme drought in Brazil. Nearly 60% of the country was affected, with some cities, including the capital Brasília, recording more than 140 consecutive days without rain. In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the impact on rivers is shocking and experts are warning of the risk to the region, an important biodiversity hotspot, according to CNN.
The Rio Negro, one of the Amazon River’s largest tributaries, has record low water levels for this time of year near the city of Manaus in Amazonas state. Water levels are falling at a rate of about 17.8 cm/day, according to Brazil’s geological agency. The river’s characteristic dark water often flows through a dense maze of canals, but satellite images now show it has shrunk significantly with large areas of the river bed exposed. The Rio Negro River is drying up quickly as temperatures rise and rainwater becomes extremely scarce, according to Lincoln Alves, a scientist at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
The same thing happens with the Solimões River, whose murky river waters merge with the Rio Negro in Manaus to form the Amazon River. This month, the water level of the Solimões River dropped to a record low in Tabatinga, a Brazilian city bordering Colombia and Peru. Ships ran aground and a huge strip of sand was exposed where the river once flowed.
Lake Tefé, on the northern bank of the Solimões River, also largely disappeared. Photos taken of the lake last month show it has shrunk significantly compared to the same period last year and continues to get smaller. This contributes to water shortages and affects the local ecosystem, according to Alves.
Last year, more than 200 dolphins died in the lake due to historic drought and record high water temperatures. Experts fear the disaster will repeat itself this year. Miriam Marmontel, who is in charge of the dolphin project at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, said in early September that they discovered an average of one dead dolphin every day. Researchers believe that as the lake shrinks, there is less living space for dolphins, putting them at greater risk of collisions with ferries.
In many parts of the Amazon River, the drought is more intense than last year’s worst, according to Romulo Batista, a biologist and spokesman for Greenpeace Brazil. The situation has left locals who depend on the river for their livelihood, food, medicine and transportation, devastated. “We are experiencing a situation that has never happened before. The drop in river levels is huge,” admitted André Guimarães, executive director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute.
The long-term severe drought in Brazil is the result of many factors. El Niño, a natural climate pattern, brought hotter and drier weather to the region last year and lasted until 2024. El Niño has now ended, but heat and drought persist due to the effects of climate change. Atlantic Ocean temperatures are unusually hot.
Another factor is deforestation, which contributes to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns. Climate change caused by burning fossil fuels also brings warmer temperatures and longer rainless periods. Last year’s drought in the Amazon basin was 30 times more likely to occur due to climate change, according to a report by World Weather Attribution, a network of scientists specializing in analyzing extreme weather events. The drought also provided conditions for forest fires in Brazil, destroying large areas of the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal region, the world’s largest tropical swamp, leaving cities covered in thick smoke.