Açai growers flee salty Amazon water
MACAPA, Brazil — Where the mother of all rivers meets the Atlantic Ocean in coastal Brazil, it’s not a single channel: instead, it braids around 142 miles of islands including the Bailique Archipelago.
A native of the mouth of the Amazon, Elielson Elinho, 31, knows that the struggle between the majestic river and the ocean shapes life in these islands. So much so that, early this year, his family sensed that the sea was winning, and that it was time to leave.
The Amazon River discharges onefifth of all the world’s freshwater that runs off land surface. Despite that force, the seawater pushed back the river that bathes the archipelago for most of the second half of 2021, leaving thousands scrambling for drinking water.
“We had to travel upriver by boat for two hours to fetch sweet water. And sometimes it tasted salty even going that far.” Elinho told The Associated Press in his home in Macapa city, where he has lived since August with his wife, Sabrina Fernandes, 25, and their three sons.
The river and the sea push back and forth against each other with different strengths according to the season. During a full moon, the sea invades the river with such strength that, in some places, it turns into a single giant wave of up to 13 feet, a phenomenon known as pororoca. The advance of seawater typically occurs in Bailique during the dry season when the Amazon River’s flow diminishes.
Last year, the seawater pushed upriver for longer, around five months. The water tasted saltier and for the first time in several decades, it reached the whole archipelago, eight islands, where about 14,000 people live spread across 58 villages.
“I had never seen it like this before. Not even my parents did it,” said Elinho, who, living now in Macapa, is away from the islands for the first time in his life.