The Amazon Region is at the forefront of the global controversies over climate change, economic development and environmental justice. One of the main processes of change in the region nowadays is related to the construction of large-scale water projects, particularly for hydroelectricity generation and river navigation (associated with export-oriented agribusiness, timber harvesting and mining). Water infrastructure projects have been built through various forms of public-private association (mostly reliant on public funds and encouragement from governmental institutions) and have invariably caused widespread social, cultural and ecological impacts. Those negative consequences of large water infrastructure schemes reflect the interplay between the pressures for economic growth exerted from the main politico-economic centres and the unique geographical circumstances. Acknowledging the complex and controversial evolution of water management in the Amazon, our intention here is to briefly examine the association between water management, agricultural expansion and hydropower generation as an example of the influential water-agriculture-energy nexus and the failure of conventional mechanisms of water governance. The mobilisation of water resources as a main element of regional development and a mediator of intersectoral relations will be analysed from a critical, interdisciplinary perspective and the overall intention is to contribute to an understanding of the ecological politics associated with water allocation, use and conservation.The construction of dams and other related water infrastructure schemes, as it has been happening particularly on the Brazilian section (which contains around 60% of the Amazon), is time and again used to propel and celebrate a nation's modernisation, but it also reveals the ontological impurity of modernity, always partial, fraught with gaps and contradictions. Examples of that include the Marathon Dam in Greece, Nehru's dams in India (deviating from Gandhi's opinion about post-colonial development), Roosevelt's dams, navigation and irrigation along the