The worst drought of a century has hit Brazil in the fight to overtake Covid

The worst drought in nearly a century has put millions of Brazilians at risk of water shortages and power outages, and the country has hampered efforts to recover from the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Agricultural centers in the state of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul have suffered damage after the lowest 20-year rainfall levels in the rainy season in November and March.

The water level in the Cantareira reservoir system, which serves the city of São Paulo with a population of around 7.5 million, has fallen below one tenth of its capacity this year. The Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy has declared the country’s worst drought in 91 years.

“We’ve been without water every other day lately, but it was usually at night. But we didn’t have water all day on Thursday, ”said Nilza Maria Silva Duarte from the eastern area of ​​the Sao Paulo working class.

José Francisco Goncalves, professor of ecology at the University of Brasilia, said that drought has a severe impact on the major agricultural industry, which accounts for about 30% of gross domestic product.

“The lack of water in rivers and reservoirs will make it impossible for farmers to irrigate their land, which will lead to a decline in agricultural production,” he said.

The drought has predicted that “inflation and commodity prices will feed the world and reduce Brazil’s GDP. It has direct consequences.”

Jose Odilon, a farmer in Ribeirão Preto, a growing agricultural center in the interior of the state of São Paulo, said his sugar cane was badly damaged.

Its extensive plantation is packed with heavy agricultural equipment – much of it automated – to remove cane leaves, harvest the stem and then throw it into a Mercedes truck fleet to transport it to local mills.

“We will suffer more from the lack of moisture on the ground,” he explained. “That hinders development.”

Odilon blamed the investment on the La Nina weather model, which has led to more rainfall in the Amazon Basin and in the south of the country.

Marcelo Laterman, who campaigned for Greenpeace’s climate in Brazil, said the drought was “directly linked” to the deforestation of the Amazon, which reached its peak more than a decade last year. The forest water recycling system plays a key role in the distribution of rainfall in South America.

With hydropower accounting for about 65% of Brazil’s electricity mix, the drought has also reduced electricity production. This has forced thermal energy to become more expensive, and this year the price of electricity for businesses and consumers has risen to 40%, according to estimates.

“Our current model based on hydroelectric and thermal power is not sustainable,” Laterman said. “Increasing drought is putting pressure on the reservoirs of hydroelectric power plants and our response is the activation of thermoelectric power plants. This, in addition to being expensive, increases greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbates the problem.”

The Brazilian government has warned of potential blackouts, sparking fears that energy consumption will be eased. Local media reported that the government was preparing a decree on rationalization to control the use of electricity in short supply. The Ministry of Mines and Energy has said it is in discussions with major energy consumers and the industry in times of higher energy demand.

Silva Duart said: “Our electricity bill is definitely more expensive, and I don’t know how we’re going to handle it, because the salary hasn’t gone up. They said the prices will go up more. Where will it stop?”

The drought is suffering the economic and social effects of the pandemic in Brazil. Nearly half a million Brazilians have been killed Covid-19, The second worst of any post-US country, and the death rate remains above 2,000 a day.

The spread of vaccines in the country has also been delayed and is beginning to pick up pace. More than a quarter of Brazil’s 212 million people have now received their first shot.

With consumer prices rising by more than 8 percent between May and May, inflation has combined the highest unemployment rates with the nation’s poorest citizens.

Less than half of Brazilians have access to adequate food at all times, with a population of 19 million, or 9% of its population, due to hunger, according to the Brazilian Research Network on Food Sovereignty and Food Security.