Brazil, Conduct Emergency Mine Inspections to Prevent another Samarco Disaster!
- van: Susan V
- ontvanger: Brazil's Minas Gerais State Environmental and Water Resources System
Considered the worst mining disaster in Brazil’s history, an earthen dam that held waste from a Samarco iron mine broke, sending a tsunami of sludge down on the small town of Bento Rodrigues. The warning signs were there, but Samarco promised it had taken care of everything.
The mine, co-owned by Vale and BHP Billitron, didn’t even have a warning system in place. As a result, 12 or more residents of BR were killed, including a sleeping seven-year-old, found days later 60 miles downstream. The total residual damage to human life and the environment can not yet be calculated.
According to UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur John Knox, “The scale of the environmental damage is the equivalent of 20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud waste contaminating the soil, rivers and water system of an area covering over 850 kilometers.”
Most disturbing about this horrific human and environmental catastrophe is that it was preventable. According to a Bloomberg report, an environmental research organization had warned in 2012 that the dam could break. But The Minas Gerais State Environmental and Water Resources System relied only on Samarco’s pledge to fix the problem before granting a license for expansion. It failed to carry out a follow-up inspection to ensure the safety Samarco had promised the townspeople when they expressed concerns at a town meeting.
While officials are deciding who to blame and how to go about the task of cleaning up this toxic mess, another urgent priority should be focusing on safety of Brazil’s remaining mines and dams, especially those owned or operated by Vale, BHP or Samarco.
The UN adds that "Brazilian authorities should assess whether Brazil’s laws for mining are consistent with international human rights standards, including the right to information."
Sign this petition to demand Brazil stop cutting corners on mine inspections and take immediate steps to ensure that Brazil’s remaining mines are safe and their dams secure.
To Brazil’s Minas Gerais State Environmental and Water Resources System:
We the undersigned believe that Brazil's mining safety agency, EWRS, has contributed to the egregious harm done to Brazil’s environment and the Brazilian people in failing to conduct a follow-up inspection to ensure that Samarco/Vale/BHP fixed the failing dam as it had promised.
According to Bloomberg’s report, Minas Gerais State EWRS "relied only on Samarco’s pledge to fix the problem” before granting the company a license for expansion.
Now, says a report in Reuters, a labor union secretary in Mariana, where Samarco is the main employer, is concerned about the safety of workers at Vale. Ronilton Condessa told Reuters that "the dam's collapse is evidence of the risks the company is taking with its people," and he adds that Samarco/Vale “knew the risk.”
Condessa went on to say that the company had been cutting costs by dismissing workers - 400 in 2015 alone - “even as it squeezed more productivity from the workforce to offset the drop in revenue from iron ore sales to the global steel industry."
Add to Samarco/Vale’s cutting corners, Bloomberg reported that it was Mina Gerais EWRS alleged need to “slash spending” that led to its failure to follow up earlier on Samarco’s promise to fix its unsafe dam. Instead EWRS had planned to wait until December of this year to inspect, which we all now know is tragically too late.
Even though a mine company representative told Reuters it is now “reviewing the safety conditions at 115 of its main dams and no concerns have arisen so far,” how can the Brazilian people and mine workers trust this company after allowing such a preventable disaster as this one now wreaking havoc on it waters, acres of land and peoples‘ lives?.
We, the undersigned, agree with the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur Baskut Tuncak that “The Brazilian authorities should assess whether Brazil’s laws for mining are consistent with international human rights standards, including the right to information," and that:
"There may never be an effective remedy for victims whose loved ones and livelihoods may now lie beneath the remains of tidal wave of toxic tailing waste, nor for the environment which has suffered irreparable harm."
However, adds these UN representatives, “Prevention of harm must be at the center of the approach of business whose activities involve hazardous substances and wastes.”
We demand that Brazil’s mining safety agency conduct emergency inspections of all mines and dams to ensure they meet rigorous safety standards, and we insist that all mining companies install immediate and adequate warning systems in the meantime.
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