South America’s second-longest river once hid seven falls
The Paraná runs some 4,880 kilometres through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina—second on the continent only to the Amazon—before joining the Paraguay and later the Uruguay to form the Río de la Plata. Guarani-related para- names litter eastern South America, though finer folk etymologies for this giant have been discounted.
The channel begins where the Paranaíba and Rio Grande meet, then runs about 619 kilometres to Saltos del Guairá, where the Guaíra Falls, known in Portuguese as Sete Quedas, once tumbled over seven cascades before a reservoir drowned them. After the Iguazu joins, the Paraná becomes the frontier between Paraguay and Argentina, with Encarnación facing downtown Posadas across the water.
From there it heads south for roughly 468 kilometres and then bends west for another 820 before meeting the Paraguay, its largest tributary. Just upstream of that junction sits the Yacyretá Dam, built jointly by Paraguay and Argentina; its reservoir raised water levels sharply and caused hardship for poorer merchants and residents in low-lying Encarnación. Farther down, past Rosario, the river joins the Uruguay to create the Río de la Plata. Sebastian Cabot sailed upstream in 1526, and a drought in 2021 dropped water to its lowest level in 77 years.
The basin takes in essentially all of Paraguay, much of southern Brazil and northern Argentina, and part of south-eastern Bolivia, and counting the Uruguay extends it over most of Uruguay too. The flow reaching the Atlantic through the Plata roughly matches what the Mississippi pours out at its delta. The watershed takes in Brasília, São Paulo, Asunción, Rosario, La Plata and Buenos Aires.
Eastern South America is thick with river names built on para or parana, Guarani words for river or sea; neater translations for this largest example, such as kin of the sea, have been rejected. Fishers along the banks depend on species like surubí and sábalo for food and export, the delta ranks among the world’s great birdwatching destinations, and the Paraná river stingray is threatened by habitat loss.
Source: Paraná River
