The extreme drought in northern Brazil has produced a series of low records for the period at points of the Madeira River, which cuts through Porto Velho, Rondônia. This is shown by the hydrological monitoring bulletin released this Tuesday (6th) by the SGB (Brazilian Geological Service).

The Madeira River hit a negative record for July on the 31st, when the Porto Velho station marked 2.45 meters. In 57 years of measurement, there have never been indicators this low for the month, according to the SGB. The water continued to drop throughout the week and reached a level of 2.07 meters this Tuesday.

The Madeira is one of the country's main waterways, used for the river transport of cargo and passengers in the Amazon. Since the beginning of August, the river has recorded a loss of 44 centimeters, being almost 3 meters lower than at the same period last year. The data comes from the National Hydrometeorological Network of ANA (National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency). The outlook for the coming days is for a slow rise, due to rain forecasts, according to SGB geoscience researcher Marcus Suassuna.