The dam mud has crossed 80 km and is approaching a hydroelectric plant | New

In the dam that erupted on Friday (25), there were about 12 million cubic meters of ore tailings. The mud wave of dam 1 fell quickly and crossed two other dams. Seven kilometers later, it reached the Paraopeba River, one of the tributaries of the São Francisco River.

The Geological Survey of Brazil estimates that until 20 hours, the mud had already traveled 80 km from the dam, until now, in the Paraopeba River.

This is not the river that Dona Cleonice knows so well. "He has lost the grace of living here because we see the parasopeba dead, Paraopeba is dying," he says.

At her home, supply comes from cisterns and there is no concern for the water for everyday use. Cleonice lives in Juatuba, where the mixture of water and residues arrived Sunday (27).

The researchers calculate that the ore tail descends the river at a speed of 1 km / h. It is much smaller than the mud speed of the Fundão dam, which erupted three years ago in Mariana. But since there is no way to prevent leaching of residues, all Paraopeba water may be dark.

Data are collected twice daily in the field and transferred to a central office, which makes predictions about the timing of residues in other cities from mathematical models.

Tuesday 29, the mixture of waste should reach the municipality of São José da Varginha and, between 5 and 10 February, at the factory of Retiro Baixo in Pompeii, in the west-central of Minas Gerais . .

The tank can damage 240 million m³ of water. On average, from the ground to the water slide, the depth is 30 meters and an additional depth of 6 meters.

In the bulletin issued Monday morning (28), the geological service of Brazil announced that it was expected that the mixture reaches the plant of Três Marias, located in the city of the same name, until February 20 to February 20. .

But the badyzes were reviewed and, in a new bulletin, the service stated in the early evening that murky waters could be withheld in the Retiro Baixo factory and were not to reach Três Marias.

The Paraopeba River supplies 43% of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area. The water intake was suspended preventively. The water for the population now comes from three other reservoirs: Rio Manso, Serra Azul, Várzea das Flores and Rio das Velhas.