IN NEWS: Severe drought grips the Amazon rainforest: The impact, cause and grim future
- The Amazon rainforest is reeling from an intense drought. Numerous rivers vital for travel have dried up. As a result, there is no water, food, or medicine in villages of Indigenous communities living in the area.
- Important Area: Rio Negro and city of Manaus
Affects
- Water levels have dropped and high numbers of fish and river dolphins, known as boto and contaminated the water supply.
- Stalled the operations of a major hydropower dam.
- limited access to food, and other supplies.
- Extreme dry conditions have made the rainforest more vulnerable to wildfires too.
Causes
- Onset of El Nino.
- Unusually high water temperatures in the northern tropical Atlantic Ocean.