The Mud of Samarco (Vale/BHP) affects women’s lives

From AzMina magazine

At the lobby of the Hotel Procidencia, in the historic center of Mariana (MG), it is always busy. The place is one of many of the city to host almost for a month, those who have lost their houses due to disruption of Samarco’s dam (belonging to the transnational Vale and BHP Billiton). There are about 300 families in this situation, not counting those who went to the homes of relatives. In addition to these unusual guests, journalists, photographers, researchers, social workers, company employees and of the City Hall and many others are circulating all the time around, while the receptionist tries to bring order to the chaos.

– This is the last interview I give – warns Rosilene da Silva, as we go into the room where her family is. Those affected are divided between the desire to keep awareness of that tragic day of November 5 and the overexposure in the last period.

Although in the hotel she does not have to do any housework, lack of privacy bothers. In the area where Rosilene is, for example, 12 single beds divide the space. The process of Samarco  moving the families from the hotels to rented houses is still slow. The first goal of the company was to transfer 25 families per week, which would mean that there would be families living in hotels until February. Pressed by the people affected, the company now promises to move 50 families per week.

It took me, but I got here – says Samarco’s representative with the clipboard in hand.  Families glad to move to houses carries their belongings to transportation. No suitcases, only black bags with hygiene materials, some clothes and food boxes, all received from donations. They climbed on the minibus of Manserv, one of the sub-contracted companies by Samarco, and went to the new temporary residence. How long they will live there is still a mystery.

Waiting

– “For people who are accustomed in a house with separate kitchen and room, here is difficult”- says Maria da Silva, 58 years old, sitting on the bed in a room of the third floor of the hotel. The bedroom with three single beds she shares with her daughter and son. She takes care of little Emily at that space, the two-year-old daughter of her neighbor. “Before the mud, I already took care of the girl because her mother works outside. Now, at the hotel, the routine continues, but with more worries, the room is at the third floor and she fears that the girl can fall of the stairs.

Samarco delivery lunch and dinner for those affected. There are many complaints about the quality of the meals. Maria refuses to eat the food provided by the company since she got ill and was taken to hospital with stomach pains. Three daughters who live in the city take turns to take food to their mother.

She has visited a house for rent, but was not pleased: the rooms were small and barely have begun the rainy season and the walls are already mold. At Paracatu de Baixo, her house is still standing, but the mud has left a strong smell due to the amount of dead animals. With the news of the risk of another rupture of another tailing dam of Samarco, she was advised to leave the premises.

– I’ll wait one more week to go to a house, or I’ll go back to my farm.

Maria, her daughter Clarice and little Emily in the room

Elisabete Messiah, 37, is also anxious, but for another reason. She is expecting her first child in December. The Hotel will probably be the first home of the child. Former resident of Bento Rodrigues, the district most affected by the mud, she does not complain of the hotel’s services, but questions the delay in moving to the houses.

– They said there was priority for pregnant, elderly, those with children, but it happened that the first people who moved to the houses were a couple without children.

Work

– Full name?

– Rosilene Gonçalves da Silva.

– How old are you?

–  I am 38 years old.

– Profession?

– “Now I am not working, right. But before I worked in a bit of everything: working at the butcher with my brother, looked after children, worked cleaning at others houses, also at home I used to make crochet and cake to sell, also helping my husband to sell honey. You would never see me sited down.”

With nearly a month living in the hotel Providencia a former resident of Bento Rodrigues is concerned.  Many women affected lost their source of income. Rosilene explains that “housewives only” were an exception in Bento, “only those who did not want to work anyway, did not work.” Some worked outside the community, especially as sub-contracted for Samarco. Others did crochet or housecleaning for others, some sold  firewood or went to the river panning for gold. Sources of income that are now lost in the mud.

by IntelliTerm” href=”#14809518″> Rosilene’s husband and daughter visit Bento Rodrigues

Until the districts devastated by the mud are not rebuilt, Samarco will have to pay a monthly amount for each family for their livelihoods. The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), which has been active in the organization of families, suggested the value of a minimum wage per person. The company opposed for a minimum wage per family with a 20% increase per dependent. Under heavy pressure of the people affected, the final proposal should be closed as follows: the “head of household” will receive a card which will receive an amount of 1500 Reais plus 30% per child.

–  The card will be in the name of the man or woman responsible for the earnings in the family, each case will be analyzed.  We have already received orders from some people not to give the cards to some of the men, because of fear of the family that these persons will spend it in drinking – says Stanislau Klein, representative of the social area of ??Samarco, on Tuesday (December 1) at a meeting with commission of residents of the impacted communities.

As most women’s monthly gains were seen as complementary to the household income, probably these women will lose an important achievement in their lives: which is their financial autonomy.

The most affected

Already it was widely reported the damage done by Mud Samarco, in what is already considered the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history.

On that day November 5, at four pm the Fundão dam ruptured, dumping between 55 and 65 million cubic meters of waste, destroying in a few minutes Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu Baixo, both at Mariana district. The mud reached the sleepy town of Barra Longa at night, displacing more than 130 families, disoriented by the company, they believed that the mud would not get that far. The waste in the Rio Doce, crossed the gates of the dam of Tout, and traveled more than 800 km, reached a population of over a million people living along the basin and depend on it for water supply, fishing and agriculture. After a 17 days the mud reached the sea at Linhares (ES).

So far we have confirmed 13 deaths and 11 people are still missing. Among the missing is the mother of Célis Felicio, 32, Maria Grazie Celestino da Silva. Until today she and her husband struggle for that the company and the government won’t abandon the searches. Both lived in Bento Rodrigues, the first village where the mud came.

Célis is a general assistant at Manserv. “On November 5^th at morning, I left for work, not realizing that I would not return at the end of the day. I was at the mining area when the dam burst and tried to warn the family as soon as possible. Many lives in Bento Rodrigues were saved this way, with the warning of the family members who worked at the dam, as the company did not have any community evacuation plan.

Within the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), we observe that women are the most affected within the dam construction process. From North to the south of the country reports show problems such as loss of income, of work, community breakdown, increase of prostitution and violence and several other particularly serious impacts in the women’s life. The same statement appeared in 2010 in a report of the National Human Rights Council, regarding rights violations in the construction of dams, “Women are particularly affected and suffer by IntelliTerm” href=”#23953899″> major obstacles to recover their livelihoods “, states the document.

I asked all interviewed for that matter whether they believed if men or women are more affected. Although they have been affected differently, their answer was unanimous:

– The women are more affected, of course. Ah, because men live more outside home and women are the ones who are there every day. Each corner of the house the woman knows more than the man, the women cares more of the plantation and the animals. Not that the man did not suffer, but the woman suffers more –  says Célis.

Célis and her nephew in Bento Rodrigues

Rosilene’s sister agrees:

– The business of the men is more the service outside to bring things home. The women pay more attention to what’s going on. Men are soft. Thankfully, this one [points to her husband] was not there [at the dam break].

Last Sunday (November 29), Rosilene, Célis sister, her husband Expedito, and two of his children, a boy of 17 and the youngest of eight, went to visit “Benedito”. Forbidden to go to his house by the civil defense, they watched from far the old town completely destroyed, bathed in a stream which runs now by contaminated mud. The girl was almost all the time in his father’s back, perhaps afraid of sinking in the mud. The boy wondered when will they be allowed to return home because he hoped to rescue his guitar, or at least the ropes.

–  The mud took the life of the people.  A piece of us which we have built have died along. – so Rosilene finished her last interview.