The balance sheet of a mining tragedy in Brazil rises to 110

The recovery of corpses under the meters of mud left by the breakage of a mining dam in southeastern Brazil continued on Thursday for the seventh day, thus taking stock of the tragedy to 110 dead, including 238 missing. The previous record, Wednesday night, was 99 dead and 259 missing.

Of the 110 bodies found, 71 have been identifiedsaid Lieutenant-Colonel Flávio Godinho, deputy coordinator of the Department of Civil Defense of Minas Gerais. Most of the found bodies "were in shallow areas", but now, "the searches will depend more on the excavation and stabilization of the ground, which will slow down the work," said Lt. Col. Pedro Aihara, spokesman for the Corps. Firefighters, cited by AFP.

Research in the region of Brumadinho, a town of 39,000 inhabitants 60 km from Belo Horizonte (the capital of Minas Gerais), they still mobilize hundreds of firefighters and police several days after the tragedy. The waste dam that fell on January 25 was located in the Córrego do Feijao mine owned by Brazil's Vale. The huge tide of mud devastated part of the Brumadinho municipality and buried company facilities at lunchtime.

Godinho warned that residents of the Paraopeba River "can not consume water" because of the pollution caused by mining waste. He badured, however, that "no community, neighborhood or city (…) will run out of water".

Last Friday, the breakage of a mining waste dam of the Brazilian valley in the Córrego do Feijao mine, 10 km from Belo Horizonte and about 20 km from the town of Mariana (where another dam collapsed three years ago, killing 19 people), caused a huge tide of mineral mud, possibly toxic, which devastated the region. More than 300 people disappeared under the avalanche. S.D.