Introductory Chapter: Severe El Niño Drought Affecting the Amazon Region

1. Introduction

Amazon basin has an area of 2.7 million square miles belonging to nine countries as follows:

Bolivia 7.7%, Brazil 58.4%, Colombia 7.1%, Ecuador 1%, French Guiana 1.4%, Guyana 3.2%, Peru 12.8%, Surinam 12.5% and Venezuela 6.1% [1].

The Amazon River is the widest and deepest river in the world and has by far the largest flow of water and drainage area. The Amazon and the Tocantins-Araguaia basins in the north account for 55% of Brazil’s total drainage area. Some studies consider the Amazon to be the longest river in the world with a length of 6990 km and the Nile the second longest with 6850 km [2].

Three of the largest tributaries of the Amazon basin are born in Colombia: the Putumayo River (1700 km), the Negro or Guainía River (2000 km) and the Caquetá River (2200 km) [2].

The total incoming water is 2985.5 km³/year, of which 29.5% (880 km³/year) comes from Colombia (Japura, Negro and Putumayo), 1495.5 km³/year from Peru (Amazon, Jurua and Purús), 550 km³/year from Plurinational State of Bolivia (Madeira) and 60 km³/year from Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Casiquiare) [2].

Casiquiare River forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon River systems. It is the waterway of the world linking together two major river systems. This phenomenon is called bifurcation. The area forms a water divide, more dramatically at the regional flood stage [3].

With all this water flow and the fact that the planet’s biggest rainforest holds a fifth of the global freshwater, it is almost impossible to believe that drought, deforestation and unrelenting heat could suck it dry and nearly paralyze all water-related activities in the region [4].

2. El Niño

Normally the Amazon region has a dry season from July to December, and water levels in the rivers can drop several feet causing the beaches and sandbanks to appear. The year 2023 was, however, totally different due to El Niño [5]. The official term for this weather phenomenon is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle which means the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean causing the Pacific jet stream to move south and spread further east [6]. El Niño was first noted by South American fishermen in the 1600s when the sea water was unusually warm in the Pacific Ocean. Because that phenomenon was strongest in December, the fishermen named it El Niño de Navidad (‘Little Boy of Christmas’). La Niña (‘Little girl’ in Spanish) has the opposite effect – a cold event when trade winds are strongest and push warm weather towards Asia [7]. In the past, El Niño led to 1998 and 2016 global heat waves but in 2023 this climate pattern started earlier than usual reaching the peak power in winter. That exacerbated a historic drought in the Amazon region [5].

3. Drinking water

The region has in normal circumstances the most freshwater reserves in the world. So, there has been no need for a public water supply because people have taken their water directly from the river. Now there is a lack of water, which is a great paradox [5].

4. Emergency

A state of emergency was declared in 55 municipalities by the Brazilian authorities mainly because inability of boats to navigate the low-water rivers which has left hundreds of thousands of inhabitants completely stranded in the remote corners of Brazil [5].

5. Fisheries

Many families got their most wanted fish, namely pirarucú Arapaima gigas, from the next-door river before the drought but now this world’s largest freshwater fish (often more than 100 kg) cannot swim in the river tributaries with less than 20 cm water. The remaining big fish are hiding in the lakes, but without a boat, fishing is impossible as is bringing the catch back home [5].

6. Forest fires

It has been noted that the deforesters have taken advantage of the situation by burning the forest to open up the land for new pastures. In September 2023 nearly 7000 forest fires were recorded making it the second-worst month on official data since 1998 [8]. And these deforesters are not indigenous people who are known to be effective in resisting forest loss. Rainforests managed by natives contain a high level of biodiversity and larger carbon density than state-managed forests [8]. It was the President Jair Bolsonaro who in 2019 started to weaken the land rights of the indigenous people. During his three years as President, more than 34,000 square km of rainforest vanished from the Brazilian Amazon, this being 52% more than in the previous three years [9].

7. Landslides

During the normal dry season, landslides are fairly common, but in 2023 the situation was much worse. The loss of rain has caused a sharp decrease in the flow of rivers. When the weight of water decreases, it stops supporting the land masses above it. Earth starts cracking causing collateral damage. People say that in Villa Arumã a landslide covered up half the town and 45 houses disappeared [5].

8. Political consequences

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva included indigenous people within his administration in 2023 [8]. He also promised to bring illegal mining under control and to monitor forest loss better, as he did between 2004 and 2012 [9]. One can only hope that this unprecedented drought will not stop the glimmer of hope President Lula da Silva was giving for the Amazon. His predecessor Jair Bolsonaro opened the Amazon for land invasions, illegal mining, large-scale ranching and non-sustainable agriculture, all activities that were the major reasons for human-caused forest fires [8]. When Bolsonaro came into power in 2019 most law enforcement measures were stripped, science and environment agencies funding was cracked down and environmental experts were fired [9].

9. Power supply

Some large hydroelectric power plants had to be shot down due to a lack of water to run the turbines [5]. If the water situation does not improve soon, large areas of the region could start suffering from electric blackouts.

10. Subsistence agriculture

The lack of rain caused serious problems in subsistence agriculture which is the lifeline of most inhabitants [5].

11. Transport

The low water level of rivers is preventing navigation with any size of boats, which have been the only means to supply thousands of inhabitants in small municipalities in northern Brazil. People are running out of food and clean water pushing them to their survival limits. Authorities estimated that some half a million people have been affected by drinking water, food and medicine shortages in the area [5].

12. Water temperature

The highest water temperatures during the drought have been over 39 degrees Celsius in the Tefé Lake at the end of September 2023 [10]. This is far too high for many water-living creatures.

13. Wildlife

The most relentless drought in recorded history is impacting not only human beings but also putting wildlife at risk [8]. Brazilian Tefé Lake region, on the border with Peru and Bolivia, is particularly important for the Amazon River Dolphins Inia geoffrensis (Figures 1 and 2). There have been an estimated 1400 botos or pink river dolphins, as they are also named, but in September–October 2023 more than 125 dolphins were found dead representing between 5 and 10% of the population [10]. According to the scientists at the local Mamirauá Institute, the extremely high-water temperature must be the explanation for deaths [5]. The institute is carrying out emergency operations to save the Amazon River Dolphin [11]. This water mammal is known for its echolocation, which allows them to navigate and find prey in the dark, muddy water [12] but even they suffer from the excess heat.

Figure 1.

Amazon River dolphins Inia geoffrensis. Photo: Silvio Battista Piotto junior.

Figure 2.

Boto or pink river dolphin begging for food in Brazil. Photo: Wikimedia common.

Acknowledgments

It was Emeritus Ambassador Mikko Pyhälä who kindly alerted me on the Amazon region drought. Thanks for that. Wikimedia Common and Silvio Battista Piotto Junior are acknowledged for the photos.

Further comments

The Brazilian authorities including the Air Force and the Navy have distributed clean water, non-perishable food, hygiene and health kits to most needy people. The non-governmental organizations have also organized aid in the form of water purifiers and gasoline for the little stoves to fry the stable diet cassava bread and cook fish [5].

Although the powerful drought shows no signs of abating, serious droughts will not last forever. Patterns of El Niño and La Niña continue usually not more than one year, but can sometimes last longer [6].

Amazonian people feel that in the future they should be more prepared for similar calamities by introducing solar panels for internet and mobile phone connections and developing family farming to give better autonomy to the communities [5].

This El Niño drought is an emergency which should get the maximum attention globally and should lead to effective action to prevent such warming and loss of nature (Mikko Pyhälä, Pers. Com.). The present government in Brazil is fully committed to crack down on deforestation rates in the country, especially in the Amazon region. Unfortunately, the El Niño drought will affect parts of the tropical ecosystem, threatening hundreds of thousands of people and animals depending on it.