Brazil relaxes Belo Monte water rule amid El Niño-fueled Amazon drought risk

Brazilian regulators have temporarily allowed the Belo Monte hydropower plant's operator, Norte Energia, to cut flow through its intermediate reservoir on the Xingu River from 300 to 100 cubic meters per second through Nov. 30, citing an anticipated El Niño-driven drought. The reduced flow raises the risk of poorer water quality affecting fish and the Indigenous and riverine communities of the Volta Grande do Xingu who depend on the river.

Norte Energia says required flow through the Volta Grande will stay unchanged and that it will monitor water quality and fish movements. Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA says it does not expect significant impacts, while a geoscientist consulted by Mongabay called the choice 'a bad one' rather than a good one.

Norte Energia has requested this same exception every dry season for three years; it was granted in 2024, denied in 2025, and approved again now. A government report cited in the piece warns regional hydropower could lose up to 40% of capacity in coming decades as the plant, designed around 1950s river-flow data, meets a river that no longer behaves like the 1950s.

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