内容摘要：A member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment places flags at the headstones of service members buried at Arlington National Cemetery, ahead of Memorial Day, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment places flags at the headstones of service members buried at Arlington National Cemetery, ahead of Memorial Day, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Some 32 kilometers (about 20 miles) down the river is the Indigenous reserve of Santa Sofia, a community of about 2,400 made up of five different Indigenous groups, where locals waited in the shade of mango trees for the arrival of supplies from a nonprofit organization. Last year, the river came right up to the mango trees, but now the water is so low it takes a five-minute walk down a dry, cracked mud path.The nonprofit delivered food supplies like lentils, rice and cooking oil, as well as three large cisterns that can be used to catch and store rainwater. Locals shouldered the heavy white bags of supplies to carry them back to their homes, and men teamed up to move the bulky cisterns.

“It’s been hard for us to get food, and to take our crops for sale to Leticia because of the drought,” said Santa Sofia resident Elder Kawache, 47.People from the Tikuna Indigenous community carry aid from a nonprofit amid a drought on Amazon River in Loma Linda, near Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)People from the Tikuna Indigenous community carry aid from a nonprofit amid a drought on Amazon River in Loma Linda, near Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Boats maneuver low water levels amid a drought on the Amazon River, at a port that connects Colombia with Peru, in Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)Boats maneuver low water levels amid a drought on the Amazon River, at a port that connects Colombia with Peru, in Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Access to drinking water has been the most difficult part of the drought for the community since the local well also dried up, Kawache, from the Cocama community, said.

Colombia’s environment ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment on the drought. The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said this month it will deliver motorized pumps and hoses for water supply to isolated territories and that a contract for the exploration of underground water sources will be initiated. It has said it is sending humanitarian assistance kits with drinking water and nonperishable food for the communities.“In the 35 years I’ve been in the Amazon, it’s the first time I’ve seen it this low,” said Jugalvis Valencia, 61, a boat tour guide. He worries that a repeat drought next year will dry up some parts of the river completely.

“If we have a similar summer next year, it’s possible that (the river) will get cut off and we’ll be stuck in Leticia,” he said.People from the Tikuna Indigenous community wait to receive aid from a nonprofit amid a drought on Amazon River in Loma Linda, near Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

People from the Tikuna Indigenous community wait to receive aid from a nonprofit amid a drought on Amazon River in Loma Linda, near Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)A man from the Tikuna Indigenous community carries a cistern from a nonprofit that can be used to catch and store rainwater for the community amid a drought in Loma Linda, near Leticia, Colombia, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)