The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The Paraná withers and with it an economic pillar of South America dries up

2021-09-07T10:10:48.450Z


The second largest river on the continent is drying up amid the worst drought in 70 years. 09/06/2021 2:33 PM Clarín.com The New York Times International Weekly Updated 09/06/2021 2:33 PM ROSARIO, Argentina - The fisherman got up early one recent morning, tapped his small boat's fuel containers to make sure he had enough for the day, and went out to the Paraná River, net in hand. The expedition was a waste of time. The river, one of South America's main sources of income, has been s


09/06/2021 2:33 PM

  • Clarín.com

  • The New York Times International Weekly

Updated 09/06/2021 2:33 PM

ROSARIO, Argentina - The fisherman got up early one recent morning, tapped his small boat's fuel containers to make sure he had enough for the day, and went out to the Paraná River, net in hand.

The expedition was a waste of time.

The river, one of South America's main sources of income, has been

severely

reduced by a

severe drought,

and the effects are damaging lives and livelihoods along its banks and far beyond.

Children playing on a littered shoreline exposed by the receding river in Rosario, Argentina.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

“All day I didn't catch a fish,” said Juan Carlos Garate, the 68-year-old fisherman, pointing to the patches of grass that sprout where there used to be water.

"Everything is dry."

The reduction in the flow of the Paraná, which has been at its lowest level since the 1940s, has disrupted the delicate ecosystems of the vast area that runs through

Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay

and has left dozens of communities with difficulties in accessing water sweet.

In a region that relies heavily on rivers to generate energy and transport the agricultural products that are the mainstay of national economies, the retreat of the continent's second-largest river also hurts companies, by increasing the

costs of producing energy

and maritime transport.

An exposed pillar of a footbridge over the river.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

Experts say that deforestation in the

Amazon

, along with rainfall patterns altered by

global warming

, contribute to drought.

Much of the moisture that becomes the rain that feeds the tributaries of the Paraná originates in the Amazon rainforest, where the trees release water vapor in a process that scientists call

"flying rivers

.

"

Rampant deforestation has disrupted this flow of moisture, weakening the streams that supply the basin's largest rivers, and transforming the landscape.

"This is much more than a hydrological problem," said Lucas Micheloud, a member of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers who lives in Rosario.

Frequent fires, he said, are turning resource-rich tropical forests into savannas.

Huge sandy beaches have emerged in front of the city of Rosario.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

Although the water level varies in different places, the Paraná is now an average of three meters below its normal flow, according to Juan Borús, an expert from Argentina's National Water Institute who has been studying the river for more than three decades.

The situation is likely to worsen at least until early November, when the rainy season begins in the region, but the drought could

last longer.

An exposed sewer manhole that used to drain directly into the river.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

Experts say that climate change has made it difficult to make accurate predictions.

Extreme phenomena such as the drought that affects much of South America are becoming "more frequent and more intense," said Lincoln Alves, a researcher at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil who worked on the latest report by the Intergovernmental Group of

Experts. on Climate Change of the United Nations.

At the end of July,

Argentina

declared a six-month emergency in the Paraná River region, calling the crisis the worst in 77 years.

The bridge that connects the provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

Government officials say it took them by surprise.

"We never thought we were going to get to the levels we are now," said Gabriel Fuks, leader of a team that coordinates the government's response to emergencies across the country.

"We were not prepared for this emergency."

Fuks said the government's highest priority is helping the roughly

60 cities

along the river that are experiencing dangerous water shortages.

Fishing boats moored along the river Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times. O.

In Paraná, a riverfront city about 125 kilometers from Rosario, a pump that supplies 15 percent of the water to the city of 250,000 people recently stopped working because the water level was too low.

Municipal authorities had to hastily come up with a solution, said Leonardo Marsilli, technical coordinator for the city's water services.

Along the river, the low water level disrupts daily life.

For Luciano Fabián Carrizo, a 15-year-old boy who lives in El Espinillo, the same island community where Garate, the fisherman, lives, the sudden disappearance of the water means that he now has to

walk two hours

to get to school.

Before, the journey took him 15 minutes by boat.

Across the river, at Terminal Puerto Rosario, one of the city's ports, officials had to extend the arms of the cranes more than two meters to reach the ships, said Gustavo Nardelli, one of the port directors.

Cristina and Marcelo, fishermen born on the islands of Rosario, Argentina.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

And in downtown Rosario, Guillermo Wade, the manager of the Chamber of Port and Maritime Activities, makes feverish calculations every morning to calculate how much can be loaded on cargo ships without running the risk of getting stuck in the less stretches. deep from the river.

The ships have been carrying

26 percent less

than normal cargo.

Wade fears that figure could go as high as 65 percent by the end of this year if the more pessimistic forecasts materialize.

"We're losing a cargo bestiality," Wade said.

Boat owners are also increasing costs to offset the risk of being trapped in the

shallow waters.

The average price of a sea voyage has more than doubled since May, from $ 15,000 a day to $ 35,000, according to Gustavo Idígoras, president of Ciara-Cec, the chamber that represents grain exporting companies.

Wooden boards placed by people to walk along the muddy banks of the river.

Photos by Sebastián López Brach for The New York Times.

The downspout of the Paraná river raised the cost of exporting agricultural products from Argentina to $ 315 million in the period between March and August, according to a calculation by the Rosario Stock Exchange.

More than

80 percent

of the country's agricultural exports, including almost all of the soybeans, Argentina's main cash crop, pass through the river on their way to the Atlantic Ocean.

The lack of water is also making energy more expensive in both Argentina and Brazil, where the low performance of dams forces governments to depend more on more expensive energy sources.

The Club Náutico Sportivo Avellaneda, on the banks of the river in Rosario, had to reinforce the docks that suddenly ran the risk of collapsing.

Sailboats and small yachts are anchored.

"This part usually has four meters of water and now it has nothing," said Pablo Creolani, president of the club.

"We never thought something like this could happen."

Scientists say this type of drought is likely to become more common in the future, causing changes in the local ecosystem that could be irreversible.

"It may not be the

new normal

, but it is a new situation that will no longer be so rare," said Walter Collischonn, a hydrologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

Some blame Brazil, Argentina's giant neighbor, where environmental protection agencies have been emptied and the government seeks to facilitate the exploitation of mines and land in the Amazon.

“This is due to the disaster they are making in Brazil.

They cut everything down, ”said Gabriel Callegri, a 50-year-old fisherman from El Espinillo.

"Who is not mad at that?"

Viviana Aguilar, a 60-year-old retiree who has been rowing the Paraná River for more than two decades, finds it hard to believe how much the landscape has changed in the last year, as islands have emerged where previously there was only water.

"Humanity is the one that is attacking nature," he said.

Manuela Andreoni contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.

c.2021 The New York Times Company


Look also

The apocalypse is now

Brazil "is drying up": in 30 years it lost a sixth of its areas covered with fresh water

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-09-07

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-29T05:53:57.302Z
News/Politics 2024-02-21T05:05:38.247Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.