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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.

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  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.

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  3. Marcio Cataldi

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

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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.

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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.

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  1. List of co-signatories

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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