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The Xingu River (/ʃiːŋˈɡuː/ sheeng-GOO;, Portuguese: Rio Xingu, Portuguese pronunciation: [ɕĩˈɡu]

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This river runs ~1,230 miles through Brazil northward to the Amazon, originating from the tropical savanna of central Mato Grosso. The total basin size is 200,900 square miles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xingurivermap.png (This photos shows where the river is in relation to the other rivers and how it flows into the Amazon)

Xingu River. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingu_River.

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The Xingu is considered the place of the world's creation by the indigenous people of the Upper Xingu.

Spirts are thought to live around the river. The tribes use shamans to deal with the spirits.

Corbin, A. (2017). Xingu River System – Brazil. Sacred Land. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://sacredland.org/xingu-river-system-brazil/.

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Including the Belo Monte there are several threats to the river and its surroundings. These threats include: logging, soy farming, corn farming, cattle ranching, pollution into the water, hunters and fishers.

Corbin, A. (2017). Xingu River System – Brazil. Sacred Land. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://sacredland.org/xingu-river-system-brazil/.

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https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91083/reshaping-the-xingu-river
The beginning of this article shows the physical change that has happened because of the dam. Over the course of just a couple years the dam has created new routes and almost wiped out an entire section of the river that ran the same route for thousands of years. About 80% of the river's entire flow has been pushed over into the hydro plant.

Reshaping the Xingu River. Earthobservatory.nasa.gov. (2017). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91083/reshaping-the-xingu-river.

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The barrageiros built a 1.2 kilometer fish ladder to help fish the first time a dam came into play. While in most areas fish ladders can be very helpful, the effectiveness of them in tropical areas is questionable. There are so many different types of fish in this tropical river that many choose to stay in the confined passage, thus making the ladder pointless. Also the ladder is a fairly narrow built ladder and therefore hard for some of the larger fish, like the goliath catfishes, to make their way through.

PEREZ, M. (2015). Where the Xingu Bends and Will Soon Break. American Scientist. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.americanscientist.org/article/where-the-xingu-bends-and-will-soon-break.

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Throughout the year the precipitation levels very drastically depending on the season. The spring stays above 200mm, while the summer stays below 100mm. There does not appear to be signs that this is going to change anytime soon.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Coe2/publication/283091322/figure/fig2/AS:650524772818944@1532108600116/Difference-in-monthly-discharge-from-the-Xingu-River-and-precipitation-summed-over-the.png (This shows the difference in discharge and precipitation)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Ffigure%2FAverage-river-discharge-m-3-s-1-of-the-Xingu-River-left-y-axis-and-precipitation_fig1_335906838&psig=AOvVaw1G-Brcoc5Bxh3otxnIVQPp&ust=1592352418934000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKDDs5SFheoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI (This shows the average river discharge in relation to precipitation)

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The water is extremely clear due to being confined to the Brazilian Shield. The river has been running for thousands of years and it has washed away the soft sediments leaving only the vibrant crystalline basement rock. What course sand does get into the river gets washed onto the beaches and shores along the way.

PEREZ, M. (2015). Where the Xingu Bends and Will Soon Break. American Scientist. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.americanscientist.org/article/where-the-xingu-bends-and-will-soon-break.

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Outside of the Brazilian government recognizing the indigenous people there had not been much political unrest over the river. That is until the proposal of the Belo Monet. The thousands of locals that have been impacted by the construction continue to push the government.
There was a lawsuit in 2005 over the dam but in 2010 the government gave the project the green light to start.

Corbin, A. (2017). Xingu River System – Brazil. Sacred Land. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://sacredland.org/xingu-river-system-brazil/.

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Even though this dam is proposed as a clean energy project its end results do not provide that to be true. The river gives off a significant amount of greenhouse gases because of its large vegetation. If this water is diverted and the vegetation can't grow and decompose it will eliminate the beneficial greenhouse gases.

Belo Monte Massive daM PRojecT sTRikes aT The heaRT of The aMazon. Internationalrivers.org. (2010). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/j4337_irn_factsheet_3.pdf.

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The Xingu is home to thousands of indigenous people who rely on the water and the food that it is home to. By diverting much of this water into the hydro plant it is leaving a 100km stretch of the Xingu's Big Bend without water and the resources that come along with the water. Not only is the food and water impacted, but also the means of transportation for many. Because of these things many communities are considering moving in order to stay alive. There is starting to show signs of lose of biodiversity because organisms are not able to continue to grow, along with the fish stocks that are being impacted by the water being moved and the streams going into the hydro plant.

Xingu River. International Rivers. (2020). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/xingu-river.

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In 2016 the Brazilian government decided to build a dam on the Xingu River. It is the third largest hydroelectric project in the world. This dam will divert almost the entire flow of the river into two man made canals for the water to be flowed into the hydro plant.

Xingu River. International Rivers. (2020). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/xingu-river.

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The Xingu is home to fourteen tribes that rely on it for their everyday lives. The river gives them most of the water, fish and vegetation that they need to live off of. In the early 1960s the Brazilian government actually recognized it as an indigenous territory, making it the first to be recognized by the Brazilian government and the world's largest indigenous preserve at the time.

Steward, J. (1963). Handbook of South American Indians. Cooper Square Publishers.

Xingu River. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingu_River.

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https://www.americanscientist.org/sites/americanscientist.org/files/11455-2015102111172811455-2015-11SabajPerezF4B.jpg

https://www.americanscientist.org/sites/americanscientist.org/files/11461-2015102111192811461-2015-11SabajPerezF10.jpg

Some fo the fish that live in the river. Hypomastcus julii. Crenicichla percna. Lemorinus fasciatus. Telecochla gephyrogramma. Hypancistrus zebra. Tometes.

PEREZ, M. (2015). Where the Xingu Bends and Will Soon Break. American Scientist. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.americanscientist.org/article/where-the-xingu-bends-and-will-soon-break.

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References

Belo Monte Massive daM PRojecT sTRikes aT The heaRT of The aMazon. Internationalrivers.org. (2010). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/j4337_irn_factsheet_3.pdf.

Corbin, A. (2017). Xingu River System – Brazil. Sacred Land. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://sacredland.org/xingu-river-system-brazil/.

PEREZ, M. (2015). Where the Xingu Bends and Will Soon Break. American Scientist. Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.americanscientist.org/article/where-the-xingu-bends-and-will-soon-break.

Reshaping the Xingu River. Earthobservatory.nasa.gov. (2017). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91083/reshaping-the-xingu-river.

Steward, J. (1963). Handbook of South American Indians. Cooper Square Publishers.

Xingu River. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingu_River.

Xingu River. International Rivers. (2020). Retrieved 16 June 2020, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/xingu-river.

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After reading through the original proposal for the Belo Monte and then the uproar that ensued afterwards I can safely say that I think the Belo Monte was a mistake. The impact that it has had is astronomical. The biodiversity is dying every day, the local people are having to relocate because they can no longer live off of the land, and the government is pushing to build even more. More hydro plants would mean even more water redirected and more polluted put into the air. I think was needs to happen is the construction be halted. Then the locals and the government can come together to try to figure out something that still allows the locals to live there, but also benefits the country by utilizing the water and its power.

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The river has a low ion concentration because the original source of the water comes from an area that is composed by geochemically poor Precambrian rocks. Overall though the water quality is considered to be high with good ionic concentration and nutrients. Xingu also has low calcium ion composition compared to other river waters in different continents.

https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-69842015000500030 (Look at Table 1 for the different dissolved ions from the different parts of the river that samples were taken from)

Sidagis-Galli, C., Abe, DS., Rodrigues-Filho, JL., Blanco, FP., Medeiros, GR., Faria, CRL., & Tundisi, JG.. (2015). Ionic characterization of the Xingu River water's in the region of the future UHE Belo Monte (PA). Brazilian Journal of Biology, 75(3s1), 30-33. https://doi.org/10.1590/1519-6984.03314BM