Rio Xingu

History and physical description

This river was little known until its exploration by Karl von den Steinnen in 1884 - 1887. Started from Cuiabá, he traversed initially 380 km before reaching the Rio Tamitataoba, 55 meters of broad, resulting from a lake 40 km in diameter. Then, the explorer descended this river until the Rio Romero which, by the west, receives the Rio Kuliseu whose water comes from the Serra C Roncador. These three rivers, while meeting, form Xingu, which goes down then towards north, until the the Amazon.

After 120 kilometers of quiet navigation, the traveller strikes a succession of rapids during more than 640 kilometers. With 170 kilometers of its mouth, the river makes a curve in the east then finds its way through a rock barrier. Then, it goes down on a level inclined during 5 kilometers, large the Cataracte of Itamaraca. This one leads then to a final jump called the fall of Itamaraca.

Close to its mouth, the river becomes an immense lake whose water ends up mixing with those of the the Amazon through a labyrinth of natural channels.

Rios feeding Xingu in the south rise from the Cerrado (tropical savanna) but, more one goes up towards north, more the landscape becomes forester. Large grassy savanna then leaves the place to the large Amazon forest.

Population and its problems

Xingu covers a surface of 53,000 km ², inhabited by 14,000 people autochtones pertaining to 9 distinct groups. In 1961, the National park of Xingu was founded in order to protect 14 various tribes living in the area from Haut-Xingu. The population was estimated there in 1997 at 1200 people divided in 30 villages and divided into 17 nations. Among them, one can name the Kayapos (556), the Kalapalos (311), the Kamazuras (326) and the Kayabis (603).

Originally, the park was to be of 120,000 km ², but the pressures come from the agricultural mediums made it decrease. Its sector is managed by Funai (bases national Indian) but under the monitoring of the Brazilian ministry of Justice.

The park did not remain intact a long time. The government indeed made there build a road which cuts it into two and which thus increases the external contacts with the autochtones. This road facilitated the introduction of nontraditional goods and, worse still, the diffusion of the disease (of which the Malaria).

Today, the park is an oasis cultural and biological threatened by the ranches which surround it. The ecosystem is in danger. The stockbreeders start fires intentionally in order to extend their productions. They also started to pollute the water of the rivers feeding Xingu.

Stoppings

The areas in the north of the park are also threatened by the lines of business at the priorities Mercantile S. During the Années 1980, the electric company Electronorte wanted to build a complex of six stoppings on Xingu and its tributary, the Rio Iriri. In 1989, an international mobilization carried out by the Indians of the area stopped the project.

Electronorte did not say its last mot. It considered then the construction of a new stopping, called Belo Monte, located along the great curve. The indigenous communities of the corner, seeing their threatened survival, protested. Studies also showed concerning the dam Barbaquarra, which would flood at the year more than 3860 km ² of tropical forest. All these stoppings would directly affect the National park of Xingu and other reserves of this area of Amazonia.

Sources

Encyclopedia Britannica
various Web sites on the National park of Xingu

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