UN criticizes Brazil for tragedy in Mariana.
The United Nations Working Group on Human Rights and Multinational Corporations concluded that the response from Brazilian authorities and the mining company Samarco was insufficient to address the Fundão dam collapse disaster in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, which left 19 dead. According to the document, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council later this month, the federal government has a "limited" capacity to ensure safety at other dams in the country.
Mines 247 - The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Human Rights and Multinational Corporations concluded that the response from Brazilian authorities and the mining company Samarco was insufficient to address the Fundão dam collapse disaster in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in 2015, which left 19 dead. According to the document, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council later this month, the federal government has a "limited" capacity to ensure safety at other dams in the country.
In March, Samarco and Brazilian authorities reached an agreement on compensation. But the UN warned of the importance of providing "adequate compensation for each person affected."
The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) released a report last December indicating that approximately 1.469 hectares of vegetation were affected by the mudslide across 77 kilometers of water. In the same month as the tragedy, the vice-president of the Instituto Terra, photographer Sebastião Salgado, predicted that the recovery of the Rio Doce's headwaters would take at least 20 years.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, one of the accusations points out that Samarco omitted information regarding the existence and fulfillment of environmental control obligations at the Fundão dam. Regarding the discharge carried out by Vale, which, along with BH Billiton, owns Samarco, the prosecutors argued in another accusation that the operation was irregular. The Fundão dam had an environmental operating license, but it only permitted Samarco to discharge tailings into the site.
The third indictment states that the defendants "constructed, installed, and expanded the alteration of the Fundão Dam's axis without a license or authorization from the competent environmental agencies and operated said dam in violation of the relevant legal and regulatory standards" and "failed to act and allowed the operation of the Fundão Dam in violation of the relevant legal and regulatory standards."