ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In the Amazon Rainforest, it's been the driest year in more than a century. Throughout South America, countries are grappling with less water, battling record wildfires and rationing energy as hydropower generation plummets. Millions of people who depend on the rivers and tributaries have seen their livelihoods sink along with the water levels. NPR's Carrie Khan brings us this report from Manaus, the largest city in Brazil's Amazon.
(CROSSTALK)
CARRIE KHAN, BYLINE: From his small stall at Manaus' raucous indoor fish market, Dantas Abreu has a unique perspective on how this huge port city has changed in just one generation.
DANTAS ABREU: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: He has two kids. One is 26, the other 2 1/2. The big gap - definitely a surprise, he says. Being a dad at 50 - it's way different.
ABREU: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: "Twenty-five years ago, there weren't cellphones or computers, but today my 2-year-old cries if I don't give her my smartphone," he says. "Also, two decades ago, there was lots of fish in the rivers," he says, "and money flowed easily, too." But these last two years have been devastating, nothing he's ever seen before.
ABREU: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: "The river dropped, and so did the amount of fish. Everything costs more now," he says.
ABREU: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: "It's so difficult here in Amazonas, Brazil's largest state by area in the rainforest," he says, just as a customer starts haggling over the cost of a kilo of his piracuru filets.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: He won't budge, and she retreats, saying she'll just stock up on more vegetables. Abreu says he's lost half his clientele. Never has there been so little recorded rainfall in the Amazon, the world's largest river system and the Earth's most important carbon-absorbing region. Scientists point to the rise in global temperatures as well as a stronger-than-normal El Niño weather pattern for the devastating dryness now stretching into a second year.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOAT ENGINE RUMBLING)
KHAN: Joao Aroldo Vieira takes a small boat out of one of Manaus' busiest ports. He stops mid-river and cuts the engine. Here, the black waters of the Rio Negro and the murky Amazon meet - but don't mix - in a spectacular contrast. Vieira also points out the river's dry, exposed banks.
JOAO AROLDO VIEIRA: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: We're right in front of a huge sandbar that has appeared in recent years. And with every drought, he says, it gets higher and higher and bigger and bigger, and it extends further into the river.
VIEIRA: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: "It's sad to see the river like this," he says. "It's getting smaller, and the land keeps growing. There's not enough river left for us to move about," he adds. Whole communities have been left stranded. Residents are dependent on the Amazon's mighty rivers and tributaries to move everything in this state with few roads. And lower river levels mean fewer ferries can cross and with lighter loads. The government has rushed out more transportation boats and has begun dredging the Amazon in hopes of widening passageways.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
KHAN: November usually begins the rainy season, but most, like Manaus fishmonger Dantas Abreu, are anxious. Meteorologists are skeptical that the upcoming rains will be enough to make up for this long, two-year drought.
ABREU: (Speaking Portuguese).
KHAN: "Man has destroyed nature," he says, "and nature is now just answering back." Carrie Khan, NPR News, Manaus, Brazil.
(SOUNDBITE OF QUINCY JONES AND BILL COSBY'S "JIVE DEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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