They evacuated hundreds of people to risk breaking new dams in Brazil

Faced with the risk of breakage of other mining dams in Brazil and after the collapse of a dam in January that he has left until now 157 dead and 182 missing, the authorities of this country evacuated hundreds of people this Friday in two municipalities of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

The first of these operations took place in the city of Barao de Cocais, a hundred kilometers from the regional capital, Belo Horizonte, and 500 people Agencia said that different neighborhoods had been evicted from their homes EFE.

The evacuation was determined by the National Mine Agency (ANM), following which a consulting company has denied the safety certificate of the "South Superior" dam, in the Gongo Soco mine, owned by the Vale mining company, which also belonged to the dike that erupted on 25 January near Brumadinho.

However, the company pointed out that the decision is preventive and that's a consequence of the inspections he's doing in the dams in the area, after the disaster that happened two weeks ago.

He also announced that he would set up a team capable of detect any "millimeter movement" in the structure and that "international consultants" will conduct an badessment of the structure next Sunday.

The "Superior Sur" dam, built from the mining waste itself and surrounding land – the same process as that used to build the Brumadinho dam, also in the state of Minas Gerais – lies between the ten that Vale has the intention of eliminating.

On the other hand, near 50 families of the municipality of Itatiaiuçu, located about 80 kilometers from Belo Horizonte, they were also evacuated from their home early in the morning and transferred to a hotel located inside the state.

The reason was the risk of collapse of another dam next to this location and belonging to the ArcelorMittal steel industry. According to firefighters in Minas Gerais, the situation is under control.

At the same time, the Brazilian authorities are pursuing rescue work in Brumadinhoin southeastern Brazil, although the chances of finding survivors are "minimal", and it is even possible that some missing are never found in the sea of ​​mud that rushed from the dam.

The Brumadinho disaster occurred only three years after another similar incident occurred in Mariana, a municipality also located in the state of Minas Gerais, where the breakdown of several of the company's dams mining company Samarco, controlled by Vale and BHP Billiton, caused 19 deaths and unprecedented environmental tragedy.