The worst drought in Brazil’s history has left Amazon rivers at record low levels, making them unnavigable and causing entire communities to become isolated. The Solimões, one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries, has fallen to its lowest level at Tabatinga, the Brazilian town bordering Colombia. Downstream at Tefe, a branch of the Solimões has dried up completely.
In Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, where the Solimões River meets the Rio Negro, the level of the latter is close to its historical minimum reached in October of last year, when it fell to the lowest level since measurements began in 1902. The situation has contributed to aggravating the forest fires that are currently taking place in the country, whose smoke has come to contaminate the air quality of the main cities.
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