DAMS
Six years after Brumadinho, Brazil is losing the people who watch its dams

Brazil's aging, poorly maintained dams are a climate-exposure problem rather than a purely engineering one. Photo: OXI Ambiental
Brazil has spent the better part of a decade learning to count its dams. By the end of 2025, it had registered 29,761 of them, up 6% from a year earlier, a bureaucratic feat assembled on the wreckage of two disasters the world has not forgotten. Knowing where the dams are and being able to guard them, the government's newest audit makes clear, have become separate problems…

🔒 This was a free preview; the rest is behind our paywall
Don’t miss out! Upgrade to unlock full access. The process takes only seconds with Apple Pay or Stripe. Become a member.

Why you should subscribe
We’re here for readers who want to truly understand Brazil and Latin America — a region too often ignored or misrepresented by the international media.
Since 2017, our reporting has been powered by paid subscribers. They’re the reason we can keep a full-time team of journalists across Brazil and Argentina, delivering sharp, independent coverage every day.
If you value our work, subscribing is the best way to keep it going — and growing.
You already back us. Here's why we're asking for more
You're already a subscriber — which means you've made a choice. You decided that understanding Brazil, accurately and ahead of the headlines, was worth paying for. Thank you. That choice is the reason we exist.
Every contribution above your subscription goes directly into journalism: the reporters and editors on the ground in São Paulo, Brasília, and Rio who file what parachute correspondents and recycled-wire intelligence simply can't. It's the difference between covering 2026 and covering it the way it deserves to be covered.
If The Brazilian Report has earned a place in how you read the country, consider giving beyond what you already pay. Whatever the amount, it funds the work — and it keeps it independent.
Interested in advertising with us? Get in touch.
Need a special report? We can do it.
Have an idea for an article or column? Pitch us






