Pedro Arrojo-Agudo’s report calls for halting new large dams, confronting pollution and placing Indigenous Peoples and communities at the center of Amazonian water governance.
For communities across the Amazon, a river is a source of drinking water, a fishing ground, a route to school or the nearest health clinic, and a place of cultural and spiritual belonging. When that river is polluted or its flow disrupted, these relationships are damaged together.
A September 2026 briefing paper, Aquatic Ecosystems and the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation in the Amazon, by Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, examines this convergence of ecological destruction and human suffering. Its central message is clear: protecting the Amazon’s aquatic ecosystems is essential to securing the rights of its peoples.
Among its strongest recommendations is a call to halt the construction of new large dams and protect the river connections on which Amazonian ecosystems and communities depend. The report urges governments to assess the combined environmental and social impacts of infrastructure across entire basins, with meaningful participation by affected peoples.
Drawing on scientific research, legal analysis and contributions from Indigenous organizations, communities and civil society, including International Rivers analysis of hydropower impacts, the paper connects pressures too often addressed separately: deforestation, dams, mining, oil extraction, inadequate sanitation and climate change.
The Amazon’s rivers carry sediments and nutrients from the Andes through floodplains and wetlands toward the Atlantic. Seasonal floods replenish soils, sustain fisheries and shape community life. Forests return moisture to the atmosphere, feeding the “flying rivers” that help sustain rainfall across much of South America. Damage to these connections can reach far beyond an individual project.
Large hydropower dams interrupt flows, trap sediments, obstruct fish migration and alter seasonal flooding. The report describes impacts in the Xingu, Tapajós and Madeira river systems, including harm to Indigenous territories, livelihoods and sacred places. In the Tapajós basin, it highlights the effects of the Teles Pires and São Manoel dams on the Munduruku, Kayabi and Apiaká peoples. The Madeira complex illustrates how dam impacts can also cross national borders.
Pollution compounds these disruptions. Mercury associated with gold mining, oil spills and agricultural chemicals threaten water sources and aquatic food systems. Communities that depend on rivers for drinking water and fish can face exposure through both. Inadequate sanitation affects rural communities and impoverished urban neighborhoods, adding untreated wastewater to stressed waterways.
The report matters because it brings these interconnected harms into an international human rights framework. Although its recommendations are not legally binding, they offer an independent expert’s assessment that can inform action to fulfill governments’ existing obligations.
Governments can use the findings to strengthen pollution controls, prioritize water and sanitation budgets, and improve infrastructure planning. The recommendations also support cooperation across borders on monitoring, basin protection and climate adaptation, alongside public investment in culturally appropriate community water systems.
For Indigenous Peoples and riverine communities, the paper offers a reference for demanding information, meaningful participation, territorial protection and respect for free, prior and informed consent. In Peru, Kukama women’s successful struggle for judicial recognition of the Marañón River and its tributaries as rights-holders illustrates how river protection and collective rights reinforce each other.
Civil society, researchers, journalists and funders can use the report to investigate overlooked impacts, support community priorities and track government responses. Legislators and oversight institutions can ask which recommendations will be implemented, with what resources and by when.
The next step is to turn these findings into public commitments, funded measures and measurable improvements. For the Amazon’s peoples, accountability means rivers that continue to sustain their lives—and a meaningful voice in decisions about their future.
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