[00:00.00]The Amazon Basin is facing one of the most severe droughts in recent years, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (or ACTO) said.
[00:17.36]As the dry season begins in August, many of its rivers are already at very low levels.
[00:27.25]And several South American countries are preparing to deal with increasing forest fires, water shortages and higher food prices.
[00:40.46]In several rivers in the southwestern Amazon, water levels are the lowest on record for this time of year.
[00:52.46]August and September are usually the driest months.
[00:58.90]That is also when most fires happen.
[01:04.17]The ACTO says the most affected countries so far this year are Bolivia, Peru and Brazil.
[01:15.63]Recently, Brazil's federal water agency declared a water shortage in two major basins, Madeira and Purus.
[01:29.04]Together, they cover an area nearly the size of Mexico.
[01:35.82]And in Brazil's Acre state, the drought has already caused water shortages in the city of Rio Branco.
[01:46.11]In June, neighboring Amazonas state declared a water shortage in 20 of its communities.
[01:56.75]The declared shortages came more than two months earlier than last year when most of the Amazon Basin suffered its worst drought on record.
[02:11.38]The 2023 drought isolated people who depend on water for transportation.
[02:19.66]Smoke from forest fires made the air in cities unhealthy to breathe.
[02:26.79]And high water temperatures killed more than 100 river dolphins.
[02:34.67]The Madeira River is one of the largest rivers in the Basin.
[02:42.06]It is also an important waterway for soybeans and fuel.
[02:48.07]The river's level dropped below three meters near Porto Velho on July 20.
[02:57.15]In 2023, that happened nearly a month later on August 15.
[03:06.73]The low water level means fewer boats could travel the river at night.
[03:13.37]And two of Brazil's largest hydroelectric plants may halt production, as happened last year.
[03:23.81]In the Amazonas town of Envira, nearby rivers have become too shallow to travel by boat.
[03:32.94]Local officials have asked old people and pregnant women to move from communities by the river to the city center.
[03:45.81]This is because medical help may not be able to reach them.
[03:50.99]The low water is also affecting food prices.
[03:57.16]Farmers who produce cassava flour cannot get it to market.
[04:03.09]As a result, this important Amazon food has more than doubled in price, local government says.
[04:12.71]Another worry is fire.
[04:15.91]There were around 25,000 fires from January until late July - the highest number for this period in almost twenty years.
[04:29.84]In the Amazon, fires are mostly human-made.
[04:36.08]People use the fires to manage fields and clear areas where trees have been cut down.
[04:45.37]Drought is not the only weather event affecting areas in Brazil's Acre state.
[04:53.97]Severe flooding hit 19 of the state's 22 communities last year.
[05:01.21]"It's been two years in a row of extreme events," said Julie Messias, Acre's secretary of environment.
[05:13.84]She added, "The result is that we are facing a threat of food shortage. First, the crops were flooded, and now the planting period is very dry."
[05:28.94]The Amazon is the world's largest river system, carrying 20 percent of the world's river water into the oceans each year.
[05:43.14]I'm Andrew Smith.
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Words in This Story
basin -n. the land around a river and the area from which water flows into it
drought -n. an extended period of very dry weather
isolate -v. to keep physically separated and away from other people or things
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