Due to the relatively high node density and sourceto-sink communication pattern, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are subject to congestion and packet losses. Further, the availability of low-cost hardware, such as Cyclops cameras, is promoting wireless multimedia sensing to support, for example, visual surveillance. As a result, congestion control is becoming more critical in WSNs. In this paper, we present a lightweight distributed congestion control method in WSNs. We develop new metrics to detect congestion in each node by considering the queue lengths and channel conditions observed in the onehop neighborhood. Based on the estimated level of congestion, each node dynamically adapts its packet transmission rate and balance the load among the one-hop neighbors to avoid creating congestion and bottleneck nodes. In a simulation study performed in OMNeT++, our approach significantly enhances the end-toend (e2e) packet delivery ratio and reduces the e2e delay without increasing the total energy consumption compared to the tested baseline approach.