© Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera
A persistent drought in northeastern Brazil is ravaging crops and killing livestock.
Picos, Brazil - Even a nonagenarian like Jose Vincente da Rocha is stunned by its severity.
"For a long time I never experienced a drought like this one," he said.
"The last one I remember like this was in 1932."
That is saying a lot, given that he is 95 years old.
In a couple of weeks, more than 100 heads of state and thousands of environmentalists from all over the world will be in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Rio+20 environmental summit, billed as the biggest and most important meeting of its kind. Most participants will meet in air-conditioned hotels and conference centres discussing how to save the planet. Part of the talks, for sure, will be about access to water.
Da Rocha hasn't received an invitation to Rio+20, doesn't even know what it is, and has no interest in finding out.
Instead, he will be where he spends most of his days: sitting on a wooden bench on his front porch, in the shade to stay cool, in his modest brick home in a dusty village of a few hundred people about a half-hour's drive from the town of Picos (population: 74,966) in Brazil's semi-arid northeast state of Piaui.
Da Rocha doesn't have the luxury of simply deliberating the theoretical scenarios of access to water. He is living it. And so are millions of other Brazilians right now: the northeast of this country is suffering through
the worst drought in four decades. More than 900 municipalities have declared a state of emergency.
© Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera
Jose Vicente da Rocha says this is the worst drought he remembers since 1932.
