«Drought forces Amazon Indigenous communities to drink mercury-tainted water», the platform Mongabay reports: One year after being hit by its worst drought ever recorded in the Amazon, Brazil is facing it all again. According to the National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring, CEMADEN, the country is going through its worst drought since 2015, but now, it’s widespread in almost all regions. More than a third of Brazil — an area equivalent to the size of India — is facing drought at its worst. (…)
In the Munduruku Indigenous Territory, in Pará state, several small rivers and springs used as water sources have already dried up. As a result, people from around 10 villages are drinking water from larger rivers like the Tapajós, one of the main illegal gold mining hubs in the Amazon. As a result, the Indigenous people are consuming water polluted by mercury, a toxic substance smuggled into Brazil and used to separate precious metal from other sediments.
