Brazil’s worst drought in nearly a century threatens electricity supplies and key crops, pushing up energy and food prices, and at this time the country hopes to start recovering from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
This country of 213 million people relies on hydropower for two-thirds of its electricity, but key dams are at close to historical lows, less than a quarter.
Last week, President Jair Bolsonaro urged Brazilians to “turn off the lights at home” to save electricity. On Tuesday, the government raised electricity prices by an average of 7%, partly to pay for new power plants and energy imports.
“We are the limit of the limit,” said Bolsonaro, who is preparing to seek re-election in 2022 because his approval rate is at a record low and people generally disapprove of his handling of the Covid-19 crisis, and he is still facing There are few signs of abating extreme weather conditions.
According to the grid operator ONS, Brazil’s water level in September may continue to deteriorate.
The National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA) announced that the Paraná River basin in Brazil’s hydroelectric power center “severely lacks water resources”, which will be valid until November.
To stay ahead of demand and avoid power outages, Brazil this week added a new biomass power station, three photovoltaic generators and four wind farms to its grid.
But most of the costs fall on consumers, who are already fighting the high unemployment and inflation rate in the world’s second-highest death toll from the pandemic.
Consumer Marisa das Dores told AFP at her home in Mateus Leme: “I was forced to reduce a lot of things at home, including some food. To save money, I reduced my children. Time to use the phone.” In eastern Brazil.
Rising prices further aggravated inflation. In July, the inflation rate reached 8.99%, almost three times the central bank’s 2021 target ceiling.
Nivalde de Castro, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said: “Energy is an important factor in causing inflation because it is reflected in every step of the production chain of all goods and services and its impact on household income. middle.”
On Tuesday, IBGE, the Brazilian National Bureau of Statistics, said that the second quarter of 2021 economic performance was lower than expected, shrinking by 0.1%.
The drought also threatens Brazil’s key agricultural sector.
Coffee production is expected to fall by 25% this season, and staple foods such as corn, sugar cane, oranges and black beans are also at risk.
But De Castro said that unless the rainfall pattern changes, the dam’s water level will not recover soon.
And “if the rainfall is still below average…the power supply and demand during peak hours in October will not match,” he added.
Brazil’s Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque called on everyone to “urgently work” to reduce electricity consumption, saying that the hydropower capacity lost by the drought is equivalent to the consumption of Rio de Janeiro and other major cities for five months.
The federal government is seeking to reduce electricity consumption for public services by 10% to 20% by April next year.
Some medium-sized towns have also begun rationing precious resources, including Itu in São Paulo State, where residents have been able to get tap water every other day at home since July.
Brazilians worry that the painful power rationing during the drought before 2001 will repeat itself. There is no such move, but the government has not ruled out this possibility.
Luiz Barroso of PSR Energy Consulting and Analysis said: “Achieving results in the short term is crucial because every day’s delay will weaken the impact of measures aimed at mitigating the risk of power shortages.”
Experts say that the drought in central and western Brazil is partly due to the deforestation of the Amazon which has led to cloud formation and reduced rainfall.
As a far-right climate change skeptic, Bolsonaro promoted the commercialization of the Amazon, and under his supervision, forest destruction accelerated.
