Brazil: three dams in Minas Gerais, with a risk of collapse

The risk of collapse was recorded Wednesday night in two dams of the city of Macacos, located near the capital, Belo Horizonte, and in another in the rural area of ​​the city of Ouro Preto.

The National Mining Agency sounded the alarm because the risk went from level 2 to level 3, the highest, indicating an "imminence" of collapse.

"The sirens sound in compliance with the security protocol so that people can be treated like Cocoa Barao" last Saturday, said Colonel Flavio Godinho, spokesman for the Civil Defense of Minas Gerais.

On Saturday, the risk was raised to grade 3 in a Barao de Cocais dam, a town whose mayor suspended its activities Monday to conduct evacuation simulations.

On January 25, the collapse of the structure of a dike near Brumadinho, also in Minas Gerais, caused the death and disappearance of more than 300 people and the pollution of the Paraopeba River, resulting in serious ecological consequences.