Fear of dam failure sleeps in another mining town – Época NEGOCIOS

+ After Mariana, environmental licenses were relaxed

. Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN). Resistance intensified after the Mariana disaster in 2015 and caused panic last week, as villagers accompanied hundreds of deaths and disappearances in Brumadinho.

to know more

"I was traumatized, I had a nightmare with my daughter, I did not even let her leave me," says Adilene Resende, with l & rsquo; One of his two daughters on his lap, next to a group of neighbors.

+ Brumadinho: cousins ​​grew up, worked and disappeared together in the city of Minas Gerais, victim of a tragedy

Adilene lives in Residencial Gualter Monteiro, the closest popular neighborhood of the dam – the nearest houses are only 250 meters from its walls. In Brumadinho, Vale's refectory and administrative area, engulfed by mud, was two kilometers away from the dam that had broken down.

Casa de Pedra is one of the largest dams built in urban areas of Latin America. 50 million m3 of mine waste, nearly five times the volume that broke out in Brumadinho

According to the State Secretariat for Environment and Sustainable Development (Semad) of Minas Gerais, the structure is ranked in Clbad 6, the highest

In an interview with BBC News Brasil in Congonhas, Mayor José de Freitas Cordeiro said he met this week with the directors of the CSN – and that the company undertook to decommission the dam by the end of the year by transforming the process of iron ore production into focus on dry waste, which do not need dam.

The announcement, according to Cordeiro, is good news, but for the moment, it is "an agreement to word of mouth. "Mariana, Vale offered record bonuses of $ 30 million to six executive directors

The mayor has been in office for six years and refuses to the CSN to ask the CSN to increase by 11 meters the dam from a height of 76 meters

"It's a dam that gives fear. It is a monster that is above Congonhas, "said the mayor of Zelinho.

Infiltration and" risk of rupture "
The stone house has been in operation for 15 years and Cordeiro explains that "the dams that exploded in Brumadinho and Mariana were built upstream – a technique that is no longer permitted in Minas Gerais," explains Cordeiro.

"The company says that the building is modern and presents no risk. But the Brumadinho Dam was also safe, according to the September report (which reflects its stability in Vale's structure).

The public prosecutor's office of Minas Gerais has already encountered problems in the structure of Casa de Pedra twice, in 2013 and 2017. An opinion of this body in October

According to the promoter Vinícius Alcântara Galvão, CSN has respected the requirements of the time and subsequent badessments confirmed the stability of the dam.

However, he points out that

"The Congonhas population lives apprehended," Galvão said. "We had the opportunity to do two preventative actions.We lit two fires.If they had not been exhausted as they were at the right time, they could have turned themselves In real damage, in death, in disaster, if this structure were to break, it would be one of the greatest accidents of humanity. "

He estimates that 5,000 people could be affected if the dam was to be broken. "The city can not cope with these risks and this situation."

World Heritage
Congonhas is one of the historic cities of Brazil and l & # 39; 39, one of the largest in the world. Minas Gerais, famous for the sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos, surrounded by sculptures of Aleijadinho and World Heritage Site of Unesco.

From the perspective of the church, built in the eighteenth century, you can see the dam that you can see. from the greater part of the city of 54,000 inhabitants

The week following the Brumadinho accident was an intense mobilization in the city. Around Tuesday, about 3,000 people gathered in the Residents Association of Residencial Gu.

On Wednesday, a group and community leaders went to the headquarters of the CSN to deliver a letter outlining their differences, including the immediate resettlement of residents of the most vulnerable areas.

"The company has no opportunity to engage with the community or the press," said Sandoval de Souza Pinto Filho, director of environment and health. of Union of Congonhas Community Associations (Unaccom)

Retired after 30 years as a technician in ore beneficiation facilities, Pinto Filho has been warning the dam for a decade, but has been described as alarmist. "People are waking up. It is good that it is before the dam breaks, "he said.

He lodged a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office in 2013 and in 2017, after being sought by locals claiming that the dam was damaging the water, that is to say, that he had infiltration points. The representations gave rise to the two civil investigations of the MP-MG against CSN – and the repairs made by the company in response, and also motivated a ban by the Ministry of Labor in 2017.

"The dam requires a lot of care its geographical position and its proximity to the center If in Córrego do Feijão we had hundreds of victims, we would start counting by the thousands, "says Pinto Filho.

He believes that the muzzle agreement announced by the mayor will only be of value as it is officially presented by the company, with a detailed timetable "

" We need to A safe, reliable and clearly communicated solution to the people so that no one continues to live with doubts.

The Mine and the District
The Stone House began to be explored in 1913, long before the founding of the CSN in 1941 by the government Getúlio Vargas and the incorporation of the mine five years later.The mining company, become the second largest steel producer of the country, was privatized in 1993.

At the construction of the popular ensemble in the 1980s, the mining dam The inhabitants only remember the water dam that belonged to the mine, farther from the place

"There was a pond where people would spend the weekend with the family. was very green very cool, but over time it was replaced by the dam that was expanding, and the population was stuck here, "says Wagner Hermano Silva Firmino, who works at the CSN and who is the only one in the world. one of the residents of the area just below the dam. His house is next to the siren installed as part of the evacuation plan.

arrived first.

The emergency plan was developed following the Samarco Dam in Mariana in November 2015, which killed 19 people and became the biggest environmental disaster in the country. Brazil

Firmino says that there was not much population adherence in the two simulations called by the company to teach residents what they should do in case of rupture

"The population did not believe much, no, not too many people, we had Mariana, and now Brumadinho … The staff totally lost their confidence."

Firmino wonders what he would do with his mother, who has had three strokes and is struggling. walk and live near the neighborhood border with the dam, if the siren sounds. "What if I'm at work?" He asks. "And the elderly, the children in the daycare, the people who have health problems, how would they do it?"

Rita Resende asks the same question. She lives next to Adilene, her sister, in the houses of Residencial Gualter Monteiro, closer to the dam wall. Between the two families, there are nine children.

"How am I going to run with my seven boys if the dam breaks out?", Asks Rita. "I do not want one of my boys to die, the whole community is scared, we ask the competent organizations to take action," she says nervously, while her children are grouped at the bottom of her skirt while She is badfeeding her newborn baby.

"It's at the top of a neighborhood that had already been landscaped.This is one of the most beautiful places in the world."

"Irresponsibility"
For Mayor José de Freitas Cordeiro, the dam could never have been built there.

Zelinho, mayor of Congonhas, said that this dam should not have been built. , the CSN attempted to obtain an environmental permit to increase the size of the dam again.According to City Hall, the uprising would be 11 meters, rising from 76 meters currently to 77.

The process is being badyzed with the Secretary of State for the Environment, but has provoked outrage from the local population.The mayor has pledged to stay against the measure If the dema As the CSN dam is confirmed, the fight for the lifting of the air must be allowed.

However, in the face of the devastation caused by the collapse of the Brumadinho Dam, the decision should not stay.

"We need an immediate solution," said Maria Augusta Fernandes Emediato Pereira, 49 years old. "After Mariana, the authorities took action, but that was not enough." Brumadinho has revived anxiety, but the problem is that it falls into oblivion thereafter. This can not happen again. "

Widow, she lives in Christ Roi, the second closest quarter of the dam, with her two daughters, Ana Júlia, 18, and Maria Gabriela, 8. They were on vacation in Porto Seguro when the dam The youngest did not want to go home at all

Up to these two tragedies, the family did not notice what was behind these earthen walls covered with 39, a green grbad, visible from the porch. "It is only after the tragedy that we realized that it was on the side of our house," fears the young Ana Júlia. [19659003] Maria Augusta has already planned to move with her daughters, but she says this would not be a solution – after all, the neighborhood will continue there, she wants the dam to be emptied and reintegrated into the wild. must have more value, "he says.