Campaign collects donations for people affected in Godofredo Viana (MA); contribute

MAB organizes a solidarity campaign so that families affected by the dam failure can get emergency help with basic items such as food, water, and hygiene kits.

At the worst moment of the pandemic in Brazil, new dam breaks have occurred again. Last Thursday (25), a dam belonging to the mining company Aurizona MASA, owned by Equinox Gold, in the municipality of Godofredo Viana, Maranhão state, broke.

The toxic mud reached the Tromaí river, invading the Water Treatment Station (ETA), used to supply the residents of Aurizona and leaving 4 thousand people without access to clean water for more than five days, besides being isolated.

According to reports from the affected people, the secondary dam broke shortly after interventions by the mining company with backhoe loaders to prevent rainwater from entering one of its mines in the Piaba region. These interventions increased the water level of a nearby lagoon, causing the collapse of an old dam previously used by illegal miners and mining companies, and now owned and used by MASA for other purposes.

The affected families in the region are in urgent need of emergency support.

Besides the emergency service, we know that the social and environmental problems caused by the rupture may continue for several years, given the contamination of the Tromaí river, which is in an area of mangroves, river, and sea.

All this has highlighted a series of crimes and damages caused to people’s lives and the environment, since we are talking about an area of mangroves and an Extractive Reserve, therefore, the complaints demanding justice and reparation of rights need to be expanded and reach the whole society. We have to denounce these serious violations of human rights and to the environment, we will be fighting for reparation and social justice.

For this reason, we are raising solidarity in a collection campaign, so that the affected population can get immediate help. We want to collect 4,000 hygiene kits, 2,000 food baskets, and 360,000 liters of clean water, enough for a month of use for the families.

Collaborate with the families of people affected in Godofredo Viana, Maranhão