April 2025: “On a Dammed River, Amazon Villagers Fight to Restore the Flow,” Yale E360.

The construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River has devastated the ecology and indigenous communities of the “Volta Grande” (Big Bend); those communities are trying to force re-operation of the dam to return water to the Volta Grande and restore some aspects of the natural flow regime.

For more on this case, it’s worth watching the 2016 film, Belo Monte: After the Flood, if you can find it.

Context: Some (but not all) of the impacts of dams on rivers and communities can be mitigated by how the dam is constructed and operated. In addition to passing fish and sediment, efforts are often made – as here – to recreate some semblance of natural flows. For more on environmental flows, see Chapter 9 and Chapter 11.