The World's Largest River is Running Low (Encore)
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Today on State of the World, the world's largest river is running low. You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon.

The Amazon is the world's largest river. It runs through the world's largest rainforest. And that river is hurting, along with the wildlife and the millions of people who depend on its waters. The region is in the second year of a punishing drought. NPR's Carrie Kahn visited the Amazon region in October, just as the dry season and the drought's effect were at their worst. Here is her story that we originally posted back then, showing what has happened to this vital river and its tributaries.

The only way to travel the now narrow waters of the once mighty Rio Negro is in small boats outfitted with a curious long spindly propeller known as a jabeta. It operates just below the surface, which works on our 40-minute ride. In some spots, the water is barely a foot deep. Hola, Paolo. Hi.

Paulo Roberto da Silva, a community leader of Nossa Senhora do Livramento, is waiting on the dock. It's been moved far from the tiny river town as the Rio Negro hit record lows and an adjoining creek completely dried up.

To get to town now, it's a 20 to 30 minute walk. First up a huge newly exposed beach, then on a well-traveled brittle trail through tall trees. The silva stops under one huge tree and points to a white mark about 13 feet overhead.

That's where the water line used to hit. This part of the forest has always been underwater with great fishing, he says. Now to catch anything, we have to go far away.

Never before has so little rain been recorded in the Amazon. Rivers are shrinking, large beaches and huge sandbars have emerged, cutting off whole communities. Dozens of municipalities are now under states of emergency. Renato Sena is a climatologist at the National Research Institute of the Amazon in Manaus. 24 is a much worse drought than 23.

We thought 2023 was bad, but 2024 is far worse, he says. Climate change and increased deforestation are heating up the region. Add to that a stronger-than-normal El Nino weather pattern this year, which led to even drier conditions. The rate at which the Amazon is drying up is scary, much faster than anyone predicted, he says.

In some parts of the Amazon, the annual dry season is now lasting an additional month longer, according to researchers. Sena says it's unclear whether La Niña, the wet weather predicted, will be enough to refill the rivers. We're here to talk to the secretary.

At the gate of Nossa Senhora School, Da Silva heads in to see the secretary, Rosangela Neri. School was canceled. It was too hard for kids to get here. But she keeps coming. It's strange, she says, in her quiet office, without all the noise of the kids or teachers here. Many people have stayed in the capital, Manaus, or leave their farms only when it's absolutely necessary.

67-year-old Vani Silva had to come into town to get her insulin. The drought is terrible. It's quite a hike for me, she says. She's wearing pearl-encrusted flip-flops and a bright orange dress. The clinic has stocked up the pharmacy so prescriptions can be filled three months at a time, given how hard it is to get around.

Da Silva's wife Silvana is cooking lunch at her tiny restaurant stall. The only one still open. She's making chicken and rice. No fish today. Nearby is a bright blue mural with colorful local fish painted on it. I asked Da Silva if he's worried that many here will only know such species from these paintings. In the water it's more difficult. There are some of them.

Well, it's much harder to find them in the water these days, he chuckles nervously. That's for sure. Carrie Khan, NPR News, Nossa Senhora do Livramento, Brazil. That's the state of the world from NPR.

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