I've been following the news and I see that in Paraguay and Argentina the river is extremely low, boats can't pass properly and people are worried. Does it have to do with the drought that happened recently or is it something more complex?
The Paraná's water levels are determined by what happens upstream in Brazil, where dams control the flow quite a bit, and this year there was less rainfall in those areas right when it historically rains the most. The drought you're mentioning is part of the picture, but the reality is that if it rains little in southern Brazil the consequence reaches the river directly: less water flowing down, less water passing through Paraguay and Argentina.
What you don't hear as much about is that deforestation in the Amazon basin also plays a role because it reduces the amount of moisture that gets recycled in the atmosphere, so it affects rainfall patterns at a regional level. It's a combination of factors, not just a one-off drought.
The drought that hit the region is the main factor, but it combines with changes in rainfall patterns over recent years and deforestation in the basin that reduces water retention. The Paraná River depends heavily on precipitation in Brazil and Paraguay, and when that drops significantly, the flow suffers quite a bit. It's not just one bad year, but there are longer-term trends making these events more frequent and severe, so people's concern is justified.
Looking at what happened here where I live, the river dropped a lot this year and people who depend on river transport had a tough time. What I see is that it wasn't just last year's drought, but several factors came together - less rain in Brazil where they control the dams, deforestation that keeps water from being retained in the basin, and weird changes in rainfall patterns that have been going on for a while now. It's like when your pipes get clogged: it's not always one thing, but a combination of several.
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