Brazil faces a serious water crisis, which is caused by the extension of the dry period, reduction in the rainfall regime and low river flow, causing the main hydroelectric plants in the country to suffer and reach low or even critical levels, and this affects energy production in the country, as to supply its main source of energy it is necessary to resort to other more expensive alternatives, such as geothermal energy, which determines the values of the electricity bills.
In addition to the exponential growth of agribusiness in Brazil, it is estimated that annually 4.5 million hectares of forests are illegally felled for the expansion of this sector. In addition, currently, according to FAO, agricultural consumption corresponds to 72% of the total energy used in the country and 60% of all water used in irrigation is wasted.
In the next 20 years, water consumption alone will increase by 30%. There will be a need to produce 50% more food, and the energy supply will have to grow 45%. Economies are wavering. Inequality is growing. And global temperatures continue to rise.
And fresh, potable water, as it is a limited resource, with increasing pollution and growth in the primary sector, this resource is fading away, causing its access to be increasingly unequal and the poorest population being harmed by the lack of potable water.
Although a part of Brazil is still not directly dealing with climate collapse, indigenous peoples in Alto Solimões do not have access to safe drinking water while in northeastern Pará, indigenous people suffer from excessive rainfall, and, in semi-arid Bahia, drought made it impossible to harvest corn this year. In Pancararé territory, for example, no ear was harvested. These difficulties are not entirely new. But the intensity and frequency of these events have been extreme with greenhouse gas emissions.
The understanding that climate events affect different social groups in different ways and intensities coin the term climate justice. According to specialists, cases of climate injustice are related to the effects of desertification processes, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, such as heavy rains, heat waves, among others - and reveals that the most affected people and countries are those that contributed the least to climate change.
Looking at climate change in Brazil is also observing the severe changes caused in the indigenous population's diet and way of life. Once food insecurity comes into play, anxiety, worry and fear are heightened. According to the thesis "Nature Has Changed: Climate Change and Transformations in the Ways of Life of the Population in the Lower Rio Negro, Amazonas", riverside communities are "highly sensitive to these transformations, as seasonal hydroclimatic cycles govern their daily lives, integrate their daily lives ways of life to the environment and determine the organization of social and agricultural calendars”.
Increased by the climate crisis, the lack of food security increases mental suffering. Vanda Witoto, an indigenous leader and nursing technician, lives in the Parque das Tribos community, in Manaus, and reports on the impact of floods on the food production of indigenous peoples. “When you have this food insecurity, it's a concern for those who have children. People are distressed to see their entire vegetable garden at the bottom of the water”, she emphasizes. Several kilometers away, going up the Solimões River, the reality is different. The village where Vanda was born, located between Santo Antônio do Içá and Amaturá, has no drinking water.