Tragedy in Minas Gerais – news of the week in brief

A new alert brought fear to the population of the Rio Doce Basin this week: the board of Samarco (Vale/BHP Billiton) admitted on Tuesday (19) that there is a risk of rupture of two other dams of the mining. One is Santarém. Initially, the company announced that it had broken, but now the version is that with the disruption of Fundão dam overflowed and it was damaged. The other is the Germano dam, the largest of the three, which has been eroded due to what occurred. The company stated they are repairing the dams – which may take 45 days. The risk of rupture increases with the arrival of the rainy season.

Also earlier this week, the prosecutor of Minas Gerais and the Federal Public Ministry signed a term with the Company for the payment of 1 billion Reais to repair the damage. Last week, 300 million Reais of the company have been blocked in court and IBAMA imposed a fine of 250 million Reais.

At least 11 people were killed and there are still another 12 missing with the tragedy. More than 600 people are without home mainly of them from Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu districts; who are at the moment in hotels in the city of Mariana. Samarco began moving these families to rented houses.

In addition, the city of Barra Longa, there are over 130 affected families, most relocated to homes of relatives and to 35 houses rented by the company. Families complain about the delay in receiving the furniture for the temporary houses and losses with economic activities: shops, agriculture and livestock.

On Wednesday (18), began the process of collective negotiation of the affected families in a meeting between the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) and the company, mediated by the Government of Minas Gerais, with the participation of several other public authorities and organizations of civil society. One of the outcomes of the meeting is an agenda of negotiations that must take place every Wednesday and mapped in different localities of the Rio Doce Basin, in order to forward urgent issues and diagnose the full extent of the impact.

On the same day that the company admitted the risk of new dam ruptures, President Dilma Rousseff signed a decree considering the dam break as a “natural disaster”, which is concerning. Will the companies responsible for the tragedy be held properly accountable for what happened?

On Thursday (19), the mud reached the Colatina’s city, State of Espírito Santo, 400 km far from where the disaster started to take place. The city depends entirely on the river for water supply. The supply was interrupted and 122,000 people are receiving water by truck-kites.

Ibama estimates that the mud will reach the sea on Friday (20). The Federal Court of Espirito Santo decreed that Samarco must adopt measures within 24 hours to stop the arrival of the mud to the coast. The mining company will be fined 10 million Reais per day if not complied to the decision.