Impact of Amazon’s climate-driven drought may last until 2026

The drought has sapped the Amazon River and some of its tributaries, killed endangered river dolphins and disrupted access to food and medicine in various cities

Experts say the drought could also double the mortality rate of the rainforest’s largest trees, releasing the huge amounts of climate-warming carbon they collectively store in their wood

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An aerial view of a riverside community, next to a dry area of the Igarape do Jaraqui stream, an affluent of Rio Negro river, part of the Puranga Conquista Sustainable Development Reserve in Manaus, Brazil, on November 1. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:48pm, 2 Dec 2023

The Amazon rainforest’s record-breaking drought hit home for Raimundo Leite de Souza one October morning, he said, when he woke to find the stream that runs behind his house had dropped nearly a foot overnight, stranding his skiff in a mudflat.

As weeks passed, Souza said, rotting fish washed up on the banks of the Jaraqui, a tributary of the Rio Negro. Rodents thrashed in the mud searching for water. Carcasses of caimans and cobras turned up in the forest.

Finally Souza, an innkeeper and community leader in Bela Vista do Jaraqui, said he rallied two dozen neighbours to drill a 60-metre well in the heart of the world’s largest freshwater basin.

“Never in my 37 years have I seen anything like this happen to our stream,” he said.

Community leader Raimundo Leite de Souza, 37, stands next to a well next to the Igarape do Jaraqui stream, an affluent of Rio Negro river, part of the Puranga Conquista Sustainable Development Reserve in Manaus, Brazil on November 1. Photo: Reuters

Driven by climate change, the drought gripping northern Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and parts of Venezuela and Colombia has sapped the Amazon River and four of its biggest tributaries to their lowest levels in at least half a century.

It has killed endangered river dolphins and triggered deadly riverbank collapses. With rivers forming the backbone of transportation across the Amazon region, the drought has disrupted access to food and medicine in dozens of cities. And, in one of the world’s top food producers, it has wiped as much as 10 million metric tons off initial forecasts for next year’s soybean crop.