'Difficult time'

Experts link Brazil's historic drought to climate change. The parched conditions have fueled wildfires in the Amazon and elsewhere in the country that have clouded major cities in smoke pollution.

For much of the day, the dry riverbed becomes an inferno underfoot.

The roughly 100 residents of Paraizinho "are tackling that beach on foot to transport the food and water we need here. It's a very difficult time", local resident Sandra Gomes Vieira said.

Last year, which also saw drought conditions, one of her daughters burned her foot crossing the riverbed. She has refused to go to school since the sand appeared this year.