Extreme flood event in the Brazilian Amazon
July 07 2021
On the 02nd of June, the state of Rorainopolis decreed the state of emergency (Decree n80/2021) following the increasing high-water level on its territory in the Brazilian Amazon.
In the RESEX, more than 2000 people and 14 villages have been affected, and many people had to leave their homes and found refuge in other areas of the forest. Some communities are entirely submerged, with many parts of villages, including schools, health posts, and fields were underwater, destroying much of the harvest.
Meanwhile, cases and deaths related to Covid-19 were rising again in the state amid a slow rollout of vaccines due to the difficulty to access flooded areas and a lack of coordinated measures to curb the spread of the virus.
Once again, the most vulnerable communities are the most affected by climate change. The Amazon Charitable Trust has been working with the local communities to develop tools and methodology to increase the resilience of the river-dwellers towards those events.
Higher-than-usual precipitation is associated with the La Niña phenomenon when currents in the central and eastern Pacific oceans affect global climate patterns. Environmental experts and organizations, including the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, say there is strong evidence that human activity and global warming alter the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including La Niña.
The Amazon Charitable trust reinforces its commitment to support the communities during this challenging time and to help them reconstruct after the flood.
