SAO PAULO - Brazil said on Tuesday it will use the Army to help deliver drinking water, food and medicine to river dwellers in the Amazon basin, which is suffering its worst drought in 40 years.
Sinking water levels have made boat travel impossible and stranded residents in distant river communities that line tributaries feeding the Amazon River.
Wells have dried up in some communities, leaving residents to risk drinking contaminated river water. People must walk miles (kilometers) to buy basic foodstuffs and drugs. Millions of fish have died.
"The national secretariat of civil defense will ask the Brazilian Army to support relief efforts for the victims of the drought in Amazonas," a spokesman for the secretariat said on Tuesday.
"These relief actions are the distribution of potable water, food and drugs," he added.
Amazonas, one of five states in the world's biggest rain forest, has raised the number of municipalities on alert or in states of emergency to 19 as the impact of the two-month drought worsens. The dry season is expected to last another two months.
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