The capital of Roraima, Boa Vista, was once again shrouded in smoke on Monday (25), after a day in which air pollution reached its worst quality since the beginning of the year. According to monitoring by the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), because of the smoke, the air in the capital was more polluted than in cities like São Paulo and Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, where pollution is often considered unhealthy and "unbreathable". Sensors that measure air quality indicated that pollution reached 402 micrograms of particulate pollution (PM 2.5) as early as late Sunday afternoon (24), which is considered a very bad and highly polluted condition, with health risks and almost 27 times more than recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Roraima is facing a dry period and a climate situation that is expected to last until April. The state leads the country in the number of hotspots in 2024 and concentrates 28 per cent of the total. With the lack of rain, rivers have dried up and there have been forest fires that have consumed houses, animals and vegetation. The smoke recorded in the city is partly brought by forest fires in the Serra da Lua and Serra da Barauana regions, in the municipality of Cantá, as well as Caracaraí and Rorainópolis, and from Guyana, on the state's northern border. Currently, 14 of Roraima's 15 municipalities are facing the effects of the drought and are in a state of emergency, including the capital Boa Vista.

Source: Amazon Agency