Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Drought in the Pantanal

By - - and IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 14 2005 (IPS) - A drought is taking a toll on the Mato Grosso Pantanal, a 210,000-square-km floodplain in central-western Brazil, while the Amazon, to the north, is struggling to overcome five months of lack of rainfall. A traditional measure of the Paraguay River, in Ladario, near the Bolivian border, has already dropped to 88 cm, lower than the previous drought, of 2001. And it will continue to decline, as rainfall has failed to materialize along the river’s tributaries.

Sergio Galdino, hydrologist with the Brazilian Agricultural Research Agency, told Tierramérica that he fears a new long-term drought is beginning, like that of 1964-1973, when the waters fell below the point at which the Ladario measuring stick has been installed since 1900.

The low waters of the Paraguay River, whose watershed includes the Pantanal, affects water transport and promotes over-fishing, but favors farming, freeing up fertile lands that were previously flooded.