Brazil: More than 3.5 million people live in mining areas with dams threatened with failure

The Vale SA waste retention dam, which collapsed last Friday in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais) (25), was considered a low risk. However, a report from the National Water Agency of Brazil – released By the end of 2018 he warned that more than 3.5 million people were living in areas with risky dams in the brazilian country.

"This represents about 2% of the Brazilian population living in cities where there would be dams threatened with overflow," says the National Water Agency's paper, based on a 2017 data survey. In the report They stressed that "45 such structures, in at least 13 states and more than 30 municipalities, had structural failures".

The most populated cities that have dams in this state are Campo Grande (MS), Cariacica (ES) and Pelotas (RS). Problems cited in the report include seepage, holes, cracks, and lack of documents to ensure structural safety.

The dam that collapsed in Brumadinho last Friday (25) was considered low risk. To date (31), there have been 110 dead and 238 missing.

The tragedy highlighted the debate about the proximity of dams with communities. Currently, there is no minimum distance established. "We never get used to it, people live in fear," says Iury Bezerra of the Movement of People Affected by Dams.

Confirm the water pollution of the Paraopeba River

At the same time, they announced today that "a high concentration of heavy metals has been detected in the Paraopeba River, after the dismantling of the B1 Stream, Vale's B1 minerals waste dam. The contamination was confirmed by a bulletin issued by the Mining Institute of Water Management (IGAM) on the control of the quality of the river water, carried out by the body , jointly with the National Water Agency (IGAM), the Geology Department. Brazil (CPMR) Copasa since the disaster last Friday.

The highest concentrations of total and total mercury in the Paraopeba River were verified, 21 times higher than the limit allowed by environmental regulations. The presence in the river of other metals such as nickel, cadmium and five others has also been found, above the values ​​that can be tolerated. The state government has issued an official note that, due to the "first results" of the monitoring carried out in Rio Paraopeba, after the rupture of the Vale mine waste dam, water from the source "presents risks to human and animal health".

L & # 39; location EM Gerais Mine issued the statement in which "the state government indicated that, given the results and, for safety, the population, the monitoring bodies do not indicate the use of the 39 raw water from the Paraopeba River for whatever purpose, until the situation is normalized ".

Ibama measures the environmental impact

According to the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), the mudslide has devastated 133.27 hectares of forest, 70.65 hectares of permanent protection areas located along the courses of Water 65.92 hectares of other land categories were affected, such as pastures or crops.

The dam failure, which ends today a week later, has caused a wave of mineral wastes that have spread to a large rural area, buried crops, forests and streams, and threaten to to reach Sao Francisco. , one of the main rivers of Brazil.

According to Ibama, preliminary data obtained from satellite images indicate that the failure of the Vale mining company has caused the destruction of at least 269.84 hectares in the region.

However, the devastated area could be higher because, according to the Institute, the area affected by waste on the banks of the Paraopeba River has so far been estimated by the formation of clouds making satellite images difficult.

The study compared the satellite images obtained two days after the tragedy with the images 3 and 7 days before the disaster.

This week, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which also monitors the damage in the region, said the area affected on the first day of the tragedy is the forest formation of the Atlantic forest, one of the main ecosystems of Brazil.

This means that the spill has left interdependent forests disconnected or isolated, so that "the loss of forests, the endangered species and the environmental impacts will be felt for years," explained L & # 39; EFE agency of the organization for the environment.

The UN has asked Brazil for an "urgent inquiry"

The United Nations today called for a "swift, thorough and impartial" investigation into the accident that occurred last Friday in Brazil, in which the dismantling of the containment dams of a mine waste dump has left a tragic week the number of 110 dead and 238 missing.

In a statement, a group of UN experts and rapporteurs, including the rapporteurs for Human Rights and the Environment, Baskut Tuncak, Leo Heller and David Boyd, have urged the Brazilian government to take action to prevent such tragedies. the second time in less than three and a half years that a deposit of mining waste explodes in Brazil and leaves many victims in balance and causes an ecological catastrophe.

"We call on the government to act urgently and resolutely in its commitment to do everything in its power to prevent such tragedies from happening again and to bring those responsible to justice," says the text published by international news agencies. in which they also express their concern at a number of recent rulings in Brazil aimed at reducing environmental regulation and the demands placed on businesses.

The memo also calls on the Brazilian government to inspect the safety of all the country's dams and mine waste deposits in order to correct any structural failures and avoid further tragedies. We are asking the Brazilian government not to allow new waste dams the integrity of those that already exist until their safety is guaranteed, "says the text.

Finally, the group of experts and UN rapporteurs calls for Vale's mining company's seamless cooperation with the authorities during the investigation and "acts in accordance with its responsibilities to identify, prevent and mitigate negative impacts on human rights ".

Source: Fohla de Sao Paulo, EFE, State, EM Minas Gerais

PE