Spotlight: Drought affects Carnival in Brazil, but most parties go on

With Rio's mayor handing over Friday the key to the city to Carnival King Momo, who reigns over the biggest party in Brazil, the world famous Rio Carnival celebrations officially began amid the severest drought afflicting the country in eight decades.

The Carnival is Brazil's most famous holiday when people from all over the world usually come to participate in a party that gathers millions.

However, this year the party has been somewhat compromised by the severe drought affecting large areas in Brazil, especially the southeastern region, which was often troubled by floods at this time of year.

Even in the northeastern region which is more accustomed to water shortage, the situation in some areas is also dire.

In major cities, several measures were taken to ensure a rational use of water during the Carnival.

Traditional Rio samba school Uniao da Ilha was supposed to have a float representing the Fountain of Youth in their parade, but the water effects had to be replaced by smoke and lights due to the water shortage, resulting in a significant increase of the school's expenses.

"Using water would have been cheaper, but we preferred to change the original project as we saw the shortage of water was getting worse," said the school President Ney Filardi.

"It would make no sense for us to use a float with so much water while people suffer water crisis," he said.

According to the National Waters Agency, some 40 million people, accounting for 20 percent of the Brazilian population, are being affected by water shortage.

Samba school Viradouro, also from Rio, decided to save as well, reducing the amount of water in one of their floats from 40,000 to 10,000 liters.

The cleaning process of the Rio Sambadrome has also been changed, featuring reused water this year. In Sao Paulo's Sambadrome, two artesian aquifers and two large reservoirs will ensure the water supply in the Carnival parade days.

Traditional Rio Carnival bloc Imprensa que eu Gamo decided to cancel their traditional tank truck, used to send water jets to help their followers deal with the intense heat that is common in this time of the year.

Meanwhile, many cities have canceled or reduced the party because of the drought, including many towns in the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Ceara.

That, however, will unlikely affect foreign tourists who are mostly attracted to the largest parties in traditional Carnival centers such as Rio, Salvador or Recife, where the effects of the drought are not as visible.

But for locals who usually spend the Carnival holiday in smaller towns, the impact is real as many towns will register considerable loss in tourism.

The drought is not the only thing affecting Carnival this year. Dengue fever cases have increased in Sao Paulo state, also prompting some towns to cancel festivities. Endi