MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — Communities dependent on the Amazon rainforest's waterways are stranded without supply of fuel, food or filtered water. These are just the first grim visions of extreme drought sweeping across Brazil’s Amazon. Raimundo Silva do Carmo, 67, makes his living as a fisherman, but these days has been struggling to simply find water. Like most rural residents in Brazil's Amazon, do Carmo typically retrieves water untreated from the biome's abundant waterways. The drought has affected most of the main rivers in the Amazon, the world’s largest basin, which accounts for 20% of the planet’s fresh water.

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Persons: Raimundo Silva, Carmo, ” Joaquim Mendes da Silva, ”, Edvaldo de Lira, Ana Paula Cunha, Marcus Suassuna Santos, Brazil’s, Ane Alencar, Alencar, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s, Geraldo Alckmin, Ayan Fleischmann, Fleischmann, Flávia Costa, Fabiano Maisonnave, Eléonore Hughes, Diane Jeantet Organizations: Associated Press, Geological Survey, Amazon Environmental Research Institute, Bolsa, Sustainable Development Institute, National Institute for Space Research, National Institute of, AP Locations: MANAUS, Brazil, Brazil's, Puraquequara, Amazonas state's, Manaus, “, CEMADEN, Amazonas, Parana, Lake Puraquequara, Equatorial, Rio Grande do Sul, Madeira, Bolivia, Porto Velho, Santo Antonio, Negro, Bolsa Familia, Solimoes, Madeira —, Lake Tefe, rocketed, Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro