“A cold front along Brazil's southeastern coast near the two principal cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro brought heavy rains on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to most of the region and the neighboring center-west, home to much of the country's farm belt,” says a Reuters report. It further adds that despite recent rains, precipitation will need to continue at above-average levels for months to refill nearly empty drinking water and hydroelectricity reservoirs to sustainable levels.
“A cold front along Brazil's southeastern coast near the two principal cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro brought heavy rains on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to most of the region and the neighboring center-west, home to much of the country's farm belt,” says a Reuters report. It further adds that despite recent rains, precipitation will need to continue at above-average levels for months to refill nearly empty drinking water and hydroelectricity reservoirs to sustainable levels.
It had earlier been reported in various news reports that in São Paulo, the country's largest city with a metropolitan area of 20 million people, the main reservoir is at just six per cent of capacity with the peak of the rainy season now past. This has even brought the national government on the verge of introducing water rationing measures.
This is the worst drought in Brazil in 84 years. According to a report by Jan Rocha for non-profit Responding To Climate Change (RTCC), the unprecedented drought is believed to be caused by the absence of the “flying rivers” − the vapour clouds from the Amazon that normally bring rain to the centre and south of Brazil. Experts, meanwhile, are of the view that deforestation in Amazon forests of Latin America and other manmade activities leading to global warming are responsible for the disaster.