How to avoid the news Marianas and Brumadinhos? The answer lies in technology

Another dam may break at the present time, this time in water. About 24,000 people are evacuated by firefighters from areas at risk, according to a spokesman for the Minas Gerais fire department, Lt. Pedro Aihara. The areas of Parque da Cachoeira, Pires, Centro de Brumadinho and Bairro Novo Progresso are on danger alert.

Vale froze R $ 11 billion to compensate for damage and environmental damage caused by dam failure. In addition to blocking badets, the latest legal measure determines that the company must take responsibility for caring for the victims and their loved ones. The mining company registers interested in providing support to those affected by the Brumadinho Dam rupture and receives data on survivors found, information about missing persons and a request for help emergency (shelter, water, staple food, clothing, medicine, transportation, etc.)

"We are victims of the valley, there is still much work to be done I will help ensure that Brumadinho is not surrounded by miners like we are in Mariana, "said Duarte Júnior, Mayor of Mariana, who is in Brumadinho to show his solidarity.

But for technicians, the financial and humanitarian means are not enough to prevent other catastrophes such as those of Mariana and Brumadinho. Updated technologies are needed.

According to Eugênio Singer, Environmental Engineering Specialist and Brazilian Director of Ramboll Consulting, most disasters can be avoided in the absence of natural movement, shocks plate tectonics to volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

"There are advanced geotechnical hazard monitoring systems with dam integrity management equipment, such as accelerometers, inclinometers and radar satellites, for example. example."

We must remember that of Petrobras. Between 2000 and 2001, the oil company suffered major disasters: the oil leak in Guanabara Bay, another leak in Repar [Refinaria Presidente Getúlio Vargas] and the explosion of the P-36 platform. The company has invested $ 4 billion to review the management of security processes, generating the Pegaso rescue program.

The Fundão and Santarém dams, present during the Mariana disaster, also deployed equipment after the environmental tragedy. "These technologies may become mandatory, the management of the geotechnical integrity of the dam needs to be deployed and improved."

This would help in the case of Brumadinho, especially to identify his environment. Its dams presented a low risk in terms of construction and monitoring methods, but their impact on the environment around the water flow was high: communities, schools, hospitals, water supply systems , deposits and chemicals. and industrial and hazardous enterprises, for example.

For Singer, it is essential that Vale save the victims and expel them involuntarily. create an emergency compensation system with participatory registration; improve its communication system, logistical access infrastructures and governance, with the participation of communities; examine any warning system as more dams are in danger; develop a quick resettlement plan with the funds already mobilized; and then prepare an emergency plan for mud impacts and water flow damage up to the hydroelectric dam, on a 220 km path.

Rodrigo Jorge Moraes, Ph.D. in environmental law, insists on the need to improve systems. and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). The expert said earlier that the rupture of the new dam after three years of the Mariana disaster shows that there has been no significant improvement in the crisis protocols or risk reduction of this type of episode [19659004] "This event once again showed the lack of preparedness of the responsible society, but also of the public power to act quickly in times of environmental crisis, information and displacement of the population." [19659004] The National Water Agency (ANA) has detected in the past three years a total of 54 water dams in the country. with infrastructure problems. This volume equates to more than half of the total of the 104 dams monitored by the agency. According to the ANA, there are only six agency officials across the country to perform this inspection work .

And justice?

For Moraes, the tragedy of Brumadinho will blame the company and its representatives in the administrative, civil and criminal fields concerning the laws 6938/81 of the national policy of the environment and 9605/9, the law relating to environmental offenses. The environmental expert Leticia Yumi Marques, however, has already explained previously that the main purpose of the legislation was to repair the damage to nature and not to arrest those responsible.

Following the breakup of the Brumadinho Dam, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Network) subscribed to the former Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, for the presentation presented next Monday, 28th of A bill to make odious "environmental crimes, when they seriously harm ecosystems and endanger human life".

The Superintendence of the Federal Police in Minas Gerais opened an investigation to "determine the circumstances" of the accident. Vale said that he did not know what had caused the dam break.

If the solution is difficult to find punishment, it must come from a stricter regulation of the sector, which includes the technological obligation. The federal government could change the rules governing environmental permits and the inspection of dams. "It seems that this license is missing something," said General Augusto Heleno, Chief Minister of the Office of Institutional Security of the Presidency of the Republic. According to the minister, the government will carry out new audits to inspect dams clbadified as "at risk".

Additional information from Agência Brasil and Agência Estado