In the port of Manaus, capital of Amazonas, the ships which usually serve the different cities of the state seem to have disappeared. You have to approach the yellow barrier bordering the gray bitumen quay to see in the distance ferries, ships and small tourist boats moored at the metal piers, 200 meters away. The drop in the water level of the Rio Negro, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River, has revealed a long beach of yellow sand where waste left by the receding waters accumulates.
Fruit and vegetable sellers who unload their goods must now cross this strip of sand carrying their load on their backs, in white canvas bags, before displaying the goods on the Manaus market, which faces the port. Discouraged by such a journey, fishermen improvised a small makeshift market on the “new” bank, and covered their stand with blue plastic tarpaulins to protect themselves from the blazing sun.
“We are at a standstill because of the drought”says Dhion Clyve, 20 years old, ferry sailor Zé Hollanda, a two-story boat that transports some 200 passengers to the town of Novo every week Aripuana, 300 kilometers to the south, has been docked for two weeks. “Many ships run aground against stones or in mud”explains the employee with black eyes and a thin beard, while swinging on a hammock suspended between two columns.
A drop of 10 centimeters per day
Since June, the El Niño climatic phenomenon, which causes a drop in precipitation and warming of the North Atlantic Ocean, has caused a “historic drought” in the Amazon, explains Renato Senna, 61, meteorologist for the National Institute for Amazon Research.
The water level of the Rio Negro, measured every day at the port of Manaus, is falling at a rate “alarming” of 10 centimeters per day, worries the scientist. In September, it even decreased at the rate of 30 centimeters per day. While the course of the river has already risen up to 30 meters at the port, causing flooding, on October 16 it reached 13 meters and 59 centimeters, “ the lowest level recorded in the last one hundred and twenty-one years ».
In the Amazon, 95% of the transport of people and goods is done by river. According to the prefecture of the state of Amazonas, which has placed 59 of the 62 municipalities in a state of emergency, 633,000 people are affected by the drought. According to the municipality of Manaus, 54 riverside communities are isolated. “Access to our village is becoming more and more difficult”worries William Soares Mendes, 35 years old, president of the Tumbira community which has 45 families and is located on an arm of the Rio Negro, 60 kilometers northwest of Manaus.
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