Brazil's main waterways in the Amazon and the Pantanal have been placed on alert for cargo and passenger transport because of drought, according to a Ministry of Ports and Airports report obtained by Folha de S.Paulo. The document, prepared by the National Waterways and Navigation Secretariat with data from September 30, shows the Madeira river in Rondônia below the reference level for imposing navigation restrictions, the Tapajós river in Pará close to 3 meters deep at critical points, and persistent extreme drought in the Paraguai river basin in the Pantanal wetlands.
On the Madeira, the gauge at Porto Velho (RO) read 3.07 meters on September 30, after dropping 1.37 meters during the month. The 4-meter mark is the reference for the start of restrictions, and 2 meters for a full halt to navigation. For now, the alert does not amount to a formal emergency declaration or a suspension of traffic. The waterway, which links Porto Velho to the Amazon river, carried 12.1 million tonnes of soybeans and corn in 2025 and is also the route by which fuel and essential goods reach riverside towns in Rondônia and Amazonas states. Despite the drop, the current level is well above the 49 centimeters recorded on the same day in 2024, and the forecast points to levels near the historical median, with recovery starting in October.
On the Tapajós, the report cites depths of 3.15 meters at Itapaiúna and 2.99 meters at Monte Cristo, two critical navigation points in Pará. At Itaituba, the level was 2.40 meters after a 1.91-meter fall in the month; at Santarém, 2.63 meters, down 2.10 meters. Both stations are forecast to stay below the historical median. The waterway receives at the Miritituba terminals, in Itaituba, the grain that arrives by truck along the BR-163 highway, mostly from Mato Grosso, and ships it by barge to export ports. According to the ministry, the Tapajós moved 2.38 million tonnes in the first two months of 2026, 86% of it soybeans and corn, plus fertilizers and liquid bulk.
Dredging canceled as agribusiness presses
The risk of restrictions on the Tapajós corridor has drawn pressure from the farm sector. In August, groups mobilized by the Congressional Agribusiness Caucus estimated that the lack of river dredging could cause an impact of up to R$ 850 million (roughly US$ 160 million) on the production chain. The fear is that part of the cargo would shift to trucks, raising the cost of moving the Center-West harvest to export markets. In September, Dnit, the federal transport infrastructure agency, canceled a R$ 74.8 million dredging tender for the Tapajós after a technical review and dialogue with Indigenous peoples and traditional communities opposed to work on the river.
Rio Negro falls, Solimões rises, Paraguai stays in extreme drought
In Manaus, the Rio Negro station recorded 18.80 meters on September 30, after falling 5.21 meters in one month, 1.72 meters below the historical median, though still above the 13.14 meters of the same day in 2024. The Negro and Solimões rivers form the passenger and small-cargo route across Amazonas state, and the report warns that sandbanks could restrict passage on stretches of both rivers, including between Manaus and Coari. On the Solimões, the picture is more favorable: Tabatinga read 3.47 meters and Coari 6.70 meters, both above the median and in the normal range, with Tabatinga rising 41 centimeters in the last week of September.
In the Pantanal, the main concern is the Paraguai river, whose basin faces persistent extreme drought. At Cáceres, in Mato Grosso, the level was 77 centimeters on September 30, against a historical median of 1.42 meters for the date, and three important stretches of the river were at the lower end of the normal range. Forecasts of below-average rain in parts of the Amazon over the coming months sharpen the focus on these routes, which both supply cities and riverside communities and carry grain and ore to export markets, tying the regional dry spell directly to Brazil's logistics costs in global commodity trade.