Stuck in the Mud: What happens when the rains don´t come?

Today, as we headed up-river to the monkey sanctuary, our boat got stuck on a sandbank. The Amazon is deceptive; its so wide, you expect it to be deep, but in fact its very shallow in the months leading up to the rainy season. And the sandbanks on the river-bed are constantly shifting, so even our skipper, who does this journey all the time, can´t tell where the deepest part of the channel runs. He managed to get us unstuck in 10 minutes or so, so it wasn´t a problem. But it got me thinking about how greatly people in this area rely on river transport for almost everything… what happens if climate change means river levels are no longer reliable?

Where is Leticia anyway?

Leticia is incredibly isolated. Its in the far SE corner of Colombia, right on the border with Brazil and separated from Peru only by the Amazon River.

It has no roads connecting it to the rest of Colombia or anywhere else for that matter. Everyone and everything that arrives in Leticia arrives by boat or by plane. While there is an abundance of locally grown tropical fruit, and fish from the river, most things need to be imported. And most manufactured goods are imported from Bogota via boat. It’s a trip that typically could take 2-3 months by boat (or 2 hours by plane!).

Totally Tropical

You´d don´t need to be a genius to know that it rains a lot in the rainforest!

Typically, the rains build from September through December and then are at their heaviest from January to April. The river level can vary by up to 10 meters over the course of a year. When you are walking in the forest you can see the water mark on the trees way above your head. In reality, the rains in the Andes are just as important to the river level, if not more so, than local rainfall.

This year there has been much less rain, leading to lower water levels in the river, and us getting stuck! With climate change, we can expect the rains to be far less predictable, and reduced rainfall may become the new normal.

Where´s my delivery?!

My friend´s brother owns a construction company in Leticia. All their materials are shipped from Bogota. This year one of his shipments got stuck on the river-bed outside Bogota. Apparently, the captain thought he´d wait, hoping for rain overnight, and the next morning woke up to find the ship high and dry! They had to unload the containers onto lorries, drive a way down river, and then reload them on to another boat, all delaying their arrival by a couple of months. After this, he started to investigate alternative routes. The only alternative he found is to ship from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, around the northeast of Brazil, and up the mouth of the Amazon. A hugely long and expensive journey.

I expect, if/when the rains fail badly, businesses will run down their stock, and people will have to make do until the river level rises, rather then attempt the circuitous route via the mounth of the Amazon. I wonder how many people are as forward thinking as my friend´s brother and already looking at how to manage this.