Despite holding around 12% of the world's freshwater, Brazil faces increasing water scarcity challenges that contradict the narrative of abundance. Over the past decades, satellite data show a significant decrease in aquatic surfaces, with a loss of around 400,000 hectares from 2022 to 2023 alone. This situation has been exacerbated by recent droughts leading to water shortages in major river basins and significant wildfires in vital ecosystems. The ongoing crises impact both the environment and the economy, raising costs for electricity and food, and highlighting the need for better water management.
"This myth needs to be broken because we are seeing a series of problems related to water use and a change in availability," said Juliano Schirmbeck, technical coordinator of a MapBiomas report on water.
Even countries with vast freshwater resources, like Brazil, are at risk of water crises due to deforestation, climate change and poor management.
During the drought in 2021, electricity prices went up, food prices went up," said Augusto Getirana, a research scientist at NASA's Hydrological Sciences Laboratory.
Just from 2023 to last year, the country lost about 400,000 hectares of water surface. That's more than five times the size of Singapore.
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