Two recent studies warn of a water-supply crisis in Brazil that is due partly to climate change and poor agricultural practices and, if not averted, could threaten not only the country’s drinking-water reserves, but also its food and energy security. A third recent study, meanwhile, points to the lack of water quality in a coastal biome whose rivers supply most of Brazil’s drinking water. Last year, Brazil was plagued by water and hydroelectric-power shortages amid droughts in three of the country’s six biomes—the Amazon rainforest, the vast Cerrado savanna, and the Pantanal, site of the world’s largest tropical wetland. The shortfalls prompted federal authorities to declare a state of water scarcity in the basins of five major rivers, four of them tributaries of the Amazon. The fifth basin was that of the Paraguay River, which runs through the Pantanal. The recent studies note that last year’s... [Log in to read more]