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Amazon drought: River at lowest level in more than 100 years

The Amazon rainforest is experiencing one of its worst droughts on record, and on Monday the Amazon river was recorded at its lowest level since records began more than 100 years ago.

At one point of the river - in Manaus - the water level is 4m lower than this time last year.

The low water levels pose a threat to the estimated 30 million people that call the Amazon basin home.

Professor Lorenzo Pellegrini, from the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam, has been studying deforestation in the Amazon and its impact on the communities there.

(Photo: Stranded boats on the drought-hit Amazon river. Credit: EPA)

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