2023-11-08 23:18:44
In recent weeks, the abnormal warming of the Atlantic Ocean has caused a reduction in the intensity of rainfall and low levels in the flow of several rivers in the Amazon, two situations that might be exacerbated by the strengthening of the El Niño phenomenon, causing havoc in the ecosystem and the quality of life of the inhabitants who depend on these water sources.
Keep reading: (The serious crisis that puts the future of river dolphins in the Amazon at risk).
Among the inhabitants of different communities in the Amazon region, rain is essential for their subsistence: it affects fishing habits, agricultural production and, in a certain way, it helps the inhabitants not to remain cut off from nearby municipalities, since When the river is full it is easier for boats to move through it.
“We don’t have drinking water or sewage, the only thing we have is the rain that helps us fill the storage tanks, but with this drought it has been difficult to keep them full,” says Gentil Gómez, curaca (indigenous leader) of the community. Santa Clara, adjacent to the municipality of Puerto Nariño, in the department of Amazonas.
As Gómez explains, the change in mobility has been drastic. “Before, one would spend half an hour going to Puerto Nariño for what was necessary or for health emergencies, but now we have to walk and pull the boat for almost an hour and a half.”
The community of Santa Clara is one of the most affected by the low river flows that do not allow movement to surrounding areas.
Gentil Gómez is the indigenous leader of the Santa Clara community, and he says that it has been difficult to travel along the river in recent months due to the drought.
For his part, Felipe Abreo, a doctor at the San Rafael de Leticia Hospital, who tours the communities of the Colombian Amazon doing checks on the health status of the communities, also warns that the little rain in recent months has an impact on the lack of access to drinking water, in the increase in diseases such as scabies (scabies), the spread of the dengue virus and also aggravates malnutrition in the child population.
Read also: (Alerts of deforested hectares in the Amazon have fallen 70% this year: Minambiente).
There is also the risk that remote communities will not receive specialized medical care in emergencies. “If a patient has appendicitis or a more critical condition, it is quite difficult to treat him, even more so being isolated and without the necessary implements,” says Dr. Abreo, who insists that in these areas just having an appendix and presenting complications can be mortal.
Drought affects various levels of society
The economic impact is not minor either, in a region that focuses on primary sector activities such as agriculture and fishing, according to the Amazon Chamber of Commerce. “The climate is an important factor; In recent months fish has been very scarce. We should have already been in winter, but it hasn’t arrived,” says Melkin Valerio, lookout for the indigenous project Thinking, Fishing and Caring Together, which aims to enforce responsible fishing agreements in the Tarapoto lakes (one of the main refuges for dolphins). river in the Colombian Amazon).
Agriculture and fishing have also been affected by the drought.
According to Silvia Vejarano, a WWF conservation biologist, “with the drought, not only the death of dolphins has increased, but also the death of other fish species, and this generates serious consequences for the Amazonian population, since everything depends on the river”.
A strong impact on the food security of the Amazonian populations on different fronts. Others are essential crops, such as cassava and banana, which are also more prone to pests and poorer harvests due to high temperatures, which causes greater spending on irrigation systems, technologies for water conservation, and a lower availability of food.
The drought and climate crisis in the Amazon are escalating to all levels of society. “The Amazon is the place that keeps the entire tropics humid; If we lose our tropical forests, the river and the rainfall, all the thermal levels and all the agricultural productivity that we have in Latin America will begin to change,” says Jimena Valderrama, a veterinary doctor at the Omacha Foundation, an organization that has been in business for more than 30 years. years working on preservation projects in that area.
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Fishermen are being affected by the drought due to the low amount of fish they manage to get per day
The loss of the dolphins
The sighting of pink and gray dolphins, with drought and other factors, also threatens to disappear in this region. According to veterinarian Valderrama, “in China these animals are already extinct, so it is not strange to think that this might happen here.”
Among other threats to this species are overfishing, which affects its natural diet; mercury pollution, climate change and one of the most worrying: dolphins are used as bait to fish for another species known as piracatinga, a scavenger fish with high levels of mercury, which is then sold in city squares, and that can cause public health problems.
“There is a record of up to 36 milligrams of mercury per kilogram, well above the limit imposed by the World Health Organization, which is around 0.05 (mg/kg),” warns Valderrama. And she remembers that in humans it has been proven that high levels of this metal increase the probability of presenting neurological diseases and complications in intrauterine development.
Jimena Valderrama, a veterinary doctor at the Omacha Foundation, checks the carcass of a pink dolphin found in the border area between Colombia and Peru.
The death of dolphins affects tourism in the region, and reflects the vulnerability of the Amazon ecosystem.
Additionally, there is a worrying precedent with dolphins in South America. In Lake Tefé, located in Brazilian territory, the Chico Mendes Institute, through the Botos Tefé Emergency Operation, recorded around 130 dead pink dolphins and 23 gray dolphins in the last week of September. A loss that represents 10 percent of this population. According to Valderrama, this mortality generates a warning of the impact of climate change on the environment, since “this species is an indicator of ecosystem health. If they are well, humans are well.”
Counter the threat
On October 12, within the framework of the launch of the National Risk Management Plan, the National Government allocated 2.2 billion pesos for the implementation of strategies that counteract the effects of the El Niño phenomenon in different areas of the country, and especially proposed the establishment of a strategic plan for the Amazon in order to address population dispersion, the situation in Leticia of low flows in the rivers and the consequences of fires that may occur during the end of the year and until May 2024.
Likewise, organizations like WWF are working from various angles to reduce the risks that are increasing with the heat wave that is passing through the Amazon. Vejarano details that from this organization they work on aspects such as the control of deforestation and gold mining. “This activity is one of the great threats to Amazonian ecosystems, generating devastating consequences for the health of dolphins and humans.”
The prolonged drought in the Amazon caused the flow of rivers to decrease and the appearance of arid lands in parts where they were previously covered by water.
The fires are another consequence of the drought experienced by the Amazon.
Regarding the protection of fauna, the South American River Dolphin Initiative (Sardi) was created, which integrates scientists from Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Bolivia and Ecuador to promote the conservation of freshwater dolphins. and their habitats, and help people who depend on rivers for their survival.
However, the significant repercussions on mobility, food security and the economy that the Colombian Amazon is suffering from the drought can still last until the beginning of next year, according to the forecast of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies ( Ideam).
Which means that for the remainder of the semester, communities and the ecosystem remain at imminent risk from the threats that these extreme weather conditions have brought with them.
DYLAN ESCOBAR RUIZ
School of Multimedia Journalism EL TIEMPO
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