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Brazil is drained by the Amazon River, which is the centrepiece of the most extensive river system in the world, and by other systems that are notable in their own right—the Tocantins-Araguaia in the north, the Paraguay-Paraná-Plata in the south, and the São Francisco in the east and northeast. Numerous smaller rivers and streams drain directly eastward to the Atlantic from the Brazilian interior, but most are short, have steep gradients, and are not impounded for hydroelectric developments or suitable for waterborne traffic. The more navigable rivers of this group are the Paranaíba, between the states of Piauí and Maranhão, and the Jacuí in Rio Grande do Sul.
The Amazon River rises from a point in the Peruvian Andes within 100 miles (160 km) of the Pacific Ocean, whence its course meanders some 4,000 miles (6,400 km) to the Atlantic. There it contributes as much as one-fifth of all of the Earth’s surface runoff from the continents to the sea. The river’s great tributaries include the Juruá, Purus, Madeira, Tapajós, and Xingu rivers on the southern side and the Negro River on the northern side (see ). Six tributaries exceed 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in length, and some carry more water individually than does North America’s Mississippi River, so that the Amazon’s annual discharge to the Atlantic is more than 10 times that of the Mississippi. Ships of considerable size navigate upstream to Manaus, and smaller vessels can reach Iquitos in eastern Peru, some 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from the sea. However, shipping is limited on the Amazonian tributaries, all of which are interrupted by falls and rapids where they descend from the highlands; none of the main effluents have been harnessed to produce hydroelectric power.
The Paraguay-Paraná-Plata is the second of the great river systems of Brazil; it also drains large parts of Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. In Brazil the system rises in the highlands of Mato Grosso, Goiás, and Minas Gerais states and flows southward in two sections—the Paraguay and Paraná (or Alto Paraná, as it is sometimes called before the two rivers join). The upper reaches of the Paraguay flow through the Pantanal and form part of the border between Brazil and Paraguay. The Alto Paraná collects numerous tributaries from southeastern Brazil, including the Paranaíba (not to be confused with the Paranaíba of the Northeast), Grande, Tietê, and Paranapanema. The Alto Paraná and Paraguay rivers unite southwest of Brazil, on the Argentina-Paraguay border, to form the Paraná proper, which eventually reaches the sea through the Río de la Plata estuary. Brazil’s two southernmost states are drained through the Uruguay River, which also flows into the Río de la Plata. In Brazil these rivers were navigable only for short stretches until they were dredged in the 1990s. Brazilians have built hydroelectric complexes and reservoirs on many tributaries of the system, including the Iguaçu, Paranapanema, Tietê, and Grande.
The Tocantins-Araguaia river system rises in the highlands of Goiás and Mato Grosso states and discharges into the Pará River just south of the Amazon delta. The Tocantins, though popularly regarded as a tributary of the Amazon, is technically a separate system draining some 314,200 square miles (813,700 square km)—nearly one-tenth of Brazil’s national territory. The middle course of the Araguaia River, in a marshland some 220 miles (350 km) northwest of Brasília, temporarily divides into western and eastern branches to form the vast Bananal Island. The Araguaia joins the Tocantins after flowing northward another 600 miles (1,000 km). In the mid-1980s the Tucuruí Dam was built on the lower Tocantins, some 120 miles (200 km) southwest of Belém, in order to generate hydroelectric power for much of Pará and Maranhão as well as for the nearby Carajás mining complex.
The São Francisco River basin covers more than 249,000 square miles (645,000 square km) in eastern Brazil. The river rises in the highlands of western Minas Gerais and southern Goiás and flows more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) northward before it turns eastward to the Atlantic. Shallow-draft riverboats ply the waters between Pirapora in Minas Gerais and Juàzeiro in Bahia, at the eastern end of the Sobradinho Reservoir. Hydroelectric installations harness the river’s energy near Paulo Afonso Falls. and at Juàzeiro. Only the watercourse below the falls is navigable for oceangoing ships.
