Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Brazil is in water crisis — it needs a drought plan

To avoid crop failures and soaring power costs, Brazil needs to diversify sources, monitor soil moisture, model local hydroclimate dynamics and treat water as a national security priority.
  1. Augusto Getirana

    1. Augusto Getirana is a principal research scientist at Science Applications International Corporation, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, and at the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Renata Libonati

    1. Renata Libonati is an assistant professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a research scientist at the Dom Luiz Institute, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  3. Marcio Cataldi

    1. Marcio Cataldi is an associate professor at the Fluminense Federal University, Niteroi, Brazil.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Brazil has the largest amount of fresh water in the world. Two-thirds of what flows in the Amazon River alone could supply the world’s demand. Yet much of the nation now faces drought.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 600, 218-220 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03625-w

A.G. writes in their personal capacity and not on behalf of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center or Science Applications International Corporation.

References

  1. Getirana, A. J. Hydrometeorol. 17, 591–599 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency. Report on the Situation of Water Resources in Brazil 2020 (ANA, 2020).

    Google Scholar 

  3. National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency. Atlas Irrigation 2021: Water Use in Irrigated Agriculture 2nd edn (ANA, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  4. National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency. Manual of Consumptive Uses of Water in Brazil (ANA, 2019).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Assessment Report 6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis (IPCC, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gomes, G. D., Nunes, A. M. B., Libonati, R. & Ambrizzi, T. Clim. Dyn. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05955-x (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Khanna, J., Medvigy, D., Fueglistaler, S. & Walko, R. Nature Clim. Change 7, 200–204 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Libonati, R. et al. Sci. Rep. 11, 4400 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Correia, A. L., Sena, E. T., Silva Dias, M. A. F. & Koren, I. Commun. Earth Environ. 2, 168 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Escobar, H. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay9857 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Diele-Viegas, L. M., Hipólito, J. & Ferrante, L. Science 374, 948–949 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Feng, X. et al. Nature 597, 516–521 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. da Silva, C. A. et al. Sci. Rep. 10, 16246 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Abessa, D., Famá, A. & Buruaem, L. Nature Ecol. Evol. 3, 510–511 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. de Mattos Bicudo, C. E. et al. Rev. USP 106, 11–20 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Rodell, M. et al. Nature 557, 651–659 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Ministry of Mines and Energy. National Energy Plan 2050 (MME, 2020).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Supplementary Information

  1. List of co-signatories

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • FACULTY POSITION IN PATHOLOGY RESEARCH

    Dallas, Texas (US)

    The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern Medical Center)

  • Postdoc Fellow / Senior Scientist

    The Yakoub and Sulzer labs at Harvard Medical School-Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Columbia University

    Boston, Massachusetts (US)

    Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital

  • Postdoc in Computational Genomics – Machine Learning for Multi-Omics Profiling of Cancer Evolution

    Computational Postdoc - Artificial Intelligence in Oncology and Regulatory Genomics and Cancer Evolution at the DKFZ - limited to 2 years

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • Computational Postdoc

    The German Cancer Research Center is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany.

    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    German Cancer Research Center in the Helmholtz Association (DKFZ)

  • PhD / PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/f/d)

    The Institute of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine / University of Freiburg is looking for a PhD/PostDoc Medical bioinformatics (m/w/d)

    Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg (DE)

    University of Freiburg

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links