Brazil minister warns efforts to ensure hydroelectric power will disrupt movement on Parana River

Yesterday, Brazil’s Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio de Freitas said efforts to save water and direct it to power generation will inevitably disrupt navigation on the Tiete-Parana waterway. The country is dealing with its worst water crisis in nearly a century. Freitas will reduce the draft of ships on the Parana river basin, which will disrupt cargo movement from farm states like Parana and Mato Grosso do Sul to ports.

From 2017 to 2019, around 5.6 MMMT of goods were transported along the Parana River system annually.

“If companies are unable to use the river to move goods because water levels fall, they would resort to trucks," Thiago Pera, logistics research coordinator at ESALQ, Sao Paulo University's college of agriculture, told Reuters. "This will raise the cost of freight as diesel prices are rising."