Government announces foundation to recover Doce river

Following a meeting on Thursday afternoon (Jan. 21) with representatives of Samarco, Vale and BHP Billiton mining companies, Attorney-General Luís Inácio Adams said the negotiations towards an agreement to compensate the damage caused by the collapse of a tailings dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais have advanced this week. “We expect to sign an agreement in early February,” he said.

Adams said the meeting was focused on governance, funding, and environmental and socioeconomic actions. He said there was convergence about creating a foundation to recover the Doce river, to be funded by the mining companies and collaborate with the civil society through an advisory board with environmental experts.

“It should also engage all three government levels (federal, state, and local) to facilitate dialogue on the implementation of 38 environmental and socioeconomic programs to be rolled out by the foundation,” he said. New rounds of talks will take place next week to establish the details of each proposed item, the Attorney-General said.

Since the disaster on 5 November 2015, he reported, Samarco has provided about $630 million considering the lawsuits filed against the mining company, costs, and financial guarantees. “We have secured funds for this first year, and we now need to set about splitting it among government agencies so we can put it to use,” he said.

The Minas Gerais State Attorney-General, Onofre Batista, supports the creation of a trust to manage the funds. “Instead of raising a huge heap of money for government agencies to sit on, we thought of establishing a foundation, using the efficiencies of the private sector, to (implement actions to) serve the public interest.”

The chair of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Marilene Ramos, said “the companies welcomed the proposals. They agreed to all of the program proposals. The next step is to discuss the technical goals and metrics and a milestone plan to be implemented over ten years to make this more than a big good-will plan, but one with tangible goals.”

She said the 19 socioenvironmental program proposals go beyond environmental recovery of the towns impacted by the disaster to cover the entire Doce river basin. “The programs cover everything from dredging the tailings accumulations on the riverbeds to restoring wildlife, recovering springs, managing and treating waste, closing down local landfills, reintroducing local biodiversity, and more.”

The Minas Gerais State Regional Development Secretary, Tadeu Leite, said the task force set up to assess the pecuniary, human, and environmental damages of the disaster will submit its final socioeconomic and environmental report next week and make suggestions of corrective and restorative remedies.

Translated by Mayra Borges