2024 Amazon Basin drought affects ACTO member countries, causing water shortages and disrupted navigation.

2024 will witness one of the most severe droughts in the Amazon Basin in recent years, affecting several member countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Rivers in the Amazon Basin are already experiencing critically low water levels, prompting governments to anticipate contingency measures to address disrupted navigation, increasing forest fires, and water shortages. The drought has already caused water supply shortages in several areas of Acre's capital, Rio Branco, leading to trucked-in water and threatening food shortages in the region. Between 2023 and 2024, Brazil's federal water agency has declared water shortages in two major basins and several municipalities have adopted emergency measures. The drought has resulted in a threat of food shortage, with crops being flooded in one year and now experiencing dry planting periods.

August 03, 2024
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