Araguaia & Tocantins Rivers

The Araguaia and Tocantins rivers flow from the central plateau northward to the southern channel of the Amazon just upstream from Belém. The Tocantins is an embanked river, with relatively clear water, while the Araguaia is a floodplain river, with a sinuous bed and muddy waters, due to its substantial sediment load. The two rivers converge at Marabá, Brazil.

Along the river live 11 distinct indigenous ethnic groups, totaling more than 14,000 people. The basin is also especially rich in fish species, with about 300 already identified, and on the Araguaia is the world´s largest fluvial island, the Ilha do Bananal.

There are two principal threats to the Araguaia–Tocantins system, whose cumulative impacts together will spell the death of the river and its aquatic life. One is the Brazilian government’s plan to construct 80 dams in the basin – 12 large dams on the mainstem of the Tocantins (4 already built), 7 on the Araguaia (which is still undammed), and 14 other large dams and dozens of smaller dams on upstream tributaries. Another is a plan to channelize and blast rock outcroppings along 1,782 km of the Araguaia and its tributary, the das Mortes river, as well as sections of the Tocantins to construct an industrial waterway, or hidrovia, to lower the cost of transporting soybeans for export.

LATEST ADDITIONS:

Dam Affected People Protest Against the Hydroelectric Power Plant of São Salvador

In Pará, MAB Occupies Tucuruí Dam

Tucuruí Dam and Amazon/Tocantins River Basin - Brazil case study

Dam–Affected Peoples in Brazil Demand Reparations from IADB

Carta sobre Cana Brava

CONTACT US:

Glenn Switkes
glenn [at] internationalrivers [dot] org
+55 35-3332-6809