Water Resources Management in Brazil - Water-related Natural Hazards

Water-related Natural Hazards

Droughts In the Northeast of Brazil droughts are a cyclical phenomenon occurring every 10 to 12 years, and some of them are very severe. The region has an annual average rainfall ranging from 400 to 800 mm, and an average water availability per person ranging from 1,320 to 1,781 m³ (the world's average was 8,209 m³ in 2007). The effects of droughts on the local, mostly poor, population are devastating. Droughts are also frequent in the South, home of most of Brazil’s industry, where the latest drought in 2000 culminated in a national energy crisis. (See Electricity sector in Brazil).

Floods Along the Amazon River there is a complex mosaic of fluvial forms, including channels, active sandbars, islands, levees, scroll-dominated plains, and abandoned belts highly prone to floods in the summer months. Hydrological variability and rapidly growing urban areas have caused new environmental problems in Brazilian cities, such as inundations in non-planned river basins. One of the causes of flood impacts is that public funds (national, state, or municipal) have barely introduced wise proactive polices to follow up rapidly growing urban areas.