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An intense drought in the Amazon rainforest caused water levels in the Paraguay River to drop to their lowest level in more than a century on Monday, disrupting trade on the main waterway, posing a danger to local transport and sending a grim warning to the rest of the world.
Paraguay’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology reported that the water level in the country’s namesake river, the lifeline of the regional economy, plunged 89 centimeters (35 inches) below the benchmark meter in the port of Asunción, the capital, the lowest point in 120 years.
The previous record decline occurred just three years ago, in October 2021 – a sign, experts say, of how droughts that starve the region’s waterways are becoming more frequent and intense.
The effects were felt most immediately in landlocked Paraguay, one of the world’s leading exporters of agricultural commodities, which relies on rivers to move 80% of its international trade.
The head of Paraguay’s fishing union said on Monday that the drop in water levels has put 1,600 fishermen out of work. On Monday, dozens of boats that normally ply the waterway sat on the dry sandbank.
“I don’t have a way out,” said FermÃn Giménez, a sailor who was trapped Monday as the river dried up under a small barge. “It’s a disaster.”
Originating in Brazil, the Paraguay-Parana waterway runs 3,400 kilometers (about 2,110 miles) through Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia and into the open sea, making the region an important transportation hub for wheat, corn, soy and other agricultural products. .
In the last few days, disruptions related to the drought have rippled from Paraguay across neighboring countries, with more than half of the capacity of river ships that are stopped or tied up in delays, according to Paraguay’s main shipping association. There is only so much that can be loaded onto a cargo ship without the risk of getting stuck in the shallows of the river, he said.
That has caused costly headaches for countries including Brazil, which exports iron ore along the river, and Bolivia, which has been forced to reroute much-needed fuel shipments via slower land routes. Paraguay, which depends on the river to generate electricity, also faces possible supply cuts, said Raúl Valdez, president of the Paraguayan Ship Center and Maritime Ship Owners.
With no rain expected in the coming weeks, industry officials say there will be no relief. They anticipate losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Our main question is, is this going to be a new pattern? No one expects a quick recovery,” Valdez said. “This is a major concern for the entire region.”
Experts say the drying up of the Paraguay River – like other rivers from the Colorado to France to the Amazon in Brazil – illustrates how population growth, climate change and deforestation are increasingly colluding with weak governance and inefficient irrigation practices to transform the landscape, raise a smooth ecosystem and deliver scores. communities struggling to find fresh water.
“Across the board we see an increase in droughts; they are longer, more intense, more frequent and more difficult to restore,” said Rachael McDonnell, deputy director general of research at the International Water Management Institute.
As rainfall becomes more erratic and climate warming intensifies the cycle of floods and droughts, McDonnell added, “we have lost slack in the system.”
Extreme drought – largely linked to climate change – has plagued the Amazon in recent years, worsening in 2024 and fueling wildfires currently raging in forests along Paraguay’s northeastern border with Brazil , where residents said Monday, the air smelled of smoke, and in parts of Bolivia, where the government declared a national emergency.
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DeBre reported from Montevideo, Uruguay.
