Severe flooding on the Amazon has increased amid changing weather patterns, and is harming the health and incomes of people living along the world's biggest river, scientists said.
Analyzing more than 100 years of records measuring Amazon River levels in the port of Manaus in Brazil, they found extreme floods that occurred roughly once every 20 years in the first part of last century are now happening about every four years.
"There are catastrophic effects on the lives of the people as the drinking water gets flooded, and the houses get completely destroyed," said Jonathan Barichivich, environmental scientist at the Universidad Austral de Chile.