Orlando Rufino stands on the bed of the river he says has “given life” to his people for hundreds of years.
“He gave his life, because he gives us everything”, he explains.
An important means of transport and a source of food and income for families like Rufino’s, the river has always meandered through dense forests in southern Colombia, until it reaches the mighty Amazon River.
But instead of walking through the water, Rufino’s feet sink into the dry sand. The wooden boats that normally traveled along the river’s steady flow are now forgotten, stranded beside it.
“Even during droughts, the river always came this far,” says Rufino, 43, pointing over his head. “Now, it’s hard.”
Historically, the dry season in the region runs from July to December. Although the river level drops during this period, its depth is almost always enough for boats to travel, according to Rufino. But in the last five years, the drought period has gradually increased. And this year, it went on for months longer than usual.
Normally a few meters deep, the river is now little more than a trickle. The low level poses a threat to the survival of about 30 million people who live in the Amazon Basin, including the Ticuna people, native to the region, to which Orlando Rufino belongs.
The director of the Colombian NGO Fundação para a Conservação e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Rodrigo Botero, says that climate change is the cause of the increase in the frequency of droughts.
“And those who suffer are the people with the fewest resources,” he said.
Botero is a scientist working across the Colombian Amazon region and has been documenting the destruction over the past few decades.
Called the “lungs of the world,” the Amazon Basin’s rainforests cover 6.9 million square kilometers — more than twice the surface area of ​​India — and are facing rampant deforestation, fueling climate change.
Since 1978, around 15% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela, according to data collected by Mongabay — a non-profit journalistic platform specializing in environmental conservation.
“Between deforestation and these immense droughts… local communities face new problems every day”, warns Botero.
Deisi Sánchez Parente Bóatakü is one of the people affected by the fall in river levels. She is 33 years old and lives in San Pedro de los Lagos, in the middle of the Colombian Amazon region, close to the border with Brazil and Peru.
Usually, she sends her children to school by boat. But with river levels too low for navigation, your half-hour trip is now a two-hour walk through dense forest.
Every day, she wakes her children up at 3:30 am so they can get to school on time.
“Sometimes they tell me, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to go to class, it’s too far,'” she says.
For Rufino, who is a fisherman and farmer, the drought means that half of his work is gone. The fish have moved to deeper waters, and the community is struggling to water their crops, he said.
And even when he and his fellow farmers manage to grow something, they can’t bring it to market without boats.
“You lose money, because there is no way to sell anything. There is no transport”, he says.
Botero says that, in extreme situations, he has seen animals die for lack of water.
Wild animals, which communities normally hunt for food, migrate to places where there is more water.
He warns that food shortages could increase even further for populations already facing disproportionately high rates of malnutrition.
Native communities have repeatedly warned of the effects the drought could have on some 350 different ethnic groups in the region.
“We don’t want any more speeches. We are facing a point of no return in the Amazon,” the head of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, José Gregorio DÃaz, recently said at a press conference, as UN (United Nations) leaders met to discuss the issue.
And to make matters worse, large areas of the Colombian Amazon region have been devastated by forest fires since the beginning of the year.
While data on the fires is not yet available, Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment published a note in January stating that they were apparently the worst fires in the region in a decade.
“What is happening is unprecedented,” according to Botero. “It’s one of the biggest fires I’ve seen in the last ten years. In fact, it’s an apocalyptic situation.”
The fear is that, in the long term, the fires could contribute to climate change, putting the region in a vicious circle of fires and droughts.
Back in his small community, Sánchez Parente feeds his baby in his small unplastered brick house. She says she is worried about the future she will leave for her children.
“That had never happened,” she says. “These are things that make you sad, because everything has changed so much.”
