Something is wrong with the Rio Paraná. José Luiz de Queiroz steers his boat across the wide river. It is still dark when he sets out to fetch the schoolchildren from the small islands out there to the mainland. Queiroz calls the Rio Paraná his home. This is where he was born and for more than 40 years he has been navigating the water that stretches from central Brazil for more than 5000 kilometers south to Argentina and - after the Amazon - is South America's second largest river. But for some time now Queiroz has needed a sonar device to avoid running into sandbanks. The river is still wide, he says, but no longer deep. It used to be up to ten meters deep in some places. Today the water barely reaches his waist in many places. “I've never seen the Rio Paraná like this before,” he says.

Tjerk Brühwiller

Correspondent for Latin America based in São Paulo.

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Queiroz heads for the shore of one of the islands, a student gets on, then it goes on. The schoolchildren's destination is Rosana, where the school bus is waiting to take them on. The community in the far west of the state of São Paulo lives on the Rio Paraná. On the one hand because of the hydropower plants in the immediate vicinity. On the other hand, because of the beauty of the river. There is a small sandy beach next to the jetty to which Queiroz has attached his boat, behind which there are food stalls. Rosana beach is popular with weekend tourists from the region, who enjoy nature, a swim in the river and the spectacular sunsets over the Rio Paraná. After a long dry spell during the pandemic, guests are gradually coming back. The operator of a takeaway is confident.Even live music can now be played again, he says.

Hardly anyone is bothered by the fact that the Rio Paraná is much flatter and shallower than usual.

Queiroz is one of the few who worry.

He knows fishermen who are finding fewer and fewer fish.

He himself gave up fishing years ago.

“You can no longer live on that,” he says.

In addition to serving the community, Queiroz also works with the day trippers.

On the weekends, he takes them in his boat to the remote places on the Rio Paraná and often upstream to the ten-kilometer-long dam of the Porto Primavera power plant and via a sluice up into the reservoir behind it, which is one of the largest in the country.

Many animals are emaciated

The problem also shows up there.

The reservoir has less water than before.

The worst drought of the past 91 years in central Brazil, where the Rio Paraná and its tributaries arise, has dramatically reduced the amount of water.

The rainy season was too short.

Since its end it has hardly rained in large regions.

The little water that finds its way into the Rio Paraná and its tributaries is retained in the reservoirs of the hydropower plants in order to maintain electricity production.

For some time now, the Porto Primavera power plant has not been draining more water than is necessary to operate the turbines.