{"id":20783,"date":"2019-02-11T13:53:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T13:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=20783"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:47:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T08:47:31","slug":"the-death-of-a-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/20783\/the-death-of-a-river\/","title":{"rendered":"The death of a river"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The Paraopeba River, affected by the mining waste dam the collapse in the city of Brumadinho, Brazil.<\/p><\/div>\n

Going fishing at the end of Sunday afternoons was routine for the couple Jair Jorge da Cruz and Concei\u00e7\u00e3o Oliveira da Cruz. With their dog, Susie, they would leave the house with bamboo sticks, bait, and cooked corn to feed the fish and go to the Paraopeba River where it crosses the neighborhood of C\u00f3rrego do Barro, in the town of Par\u00e1 de Minas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mud has not yet reached their old fishing spot, but since the rupturing of the dam, they have not dared to follow their old routine. They think it is too much of a risk, so they are going to an artificial dam to fish. Jair says, “She gets angry if we don\u2019t go fishing.” His wife is the one who likes to fish. Concei\u00e7\u00e3o lists the species that used to be found in the river: <\/span>piaba, tra\u00edra, lambari, til\u00e1pia, <\/span><\/i>and<\/span> piau<\/span><\/i>. Given the toxic mud from Vale\u2019s collapsed dam, however, these fish don\u2019t stand a chance. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The toxic mud from Vale\u2019s collapsed dam is working its way down the river and killing it. According to an analysis by NGO SOS Mata Atl\u00e2ntica, 40 km of the Paraopeba River can already be considered dead. The ore tailings increased the water’s turbidity by more than 100 times and wiped out its oxygen. No animal can survive under these conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The

Jair and Concei\u00e7\u00e3o would go fish every Sunday on the Paraobe river, but now they are going to an artificial pond because they are afraid of the toxic mud that has reached the river.<\/p><\/div>\n

The mud is not the only issue, as heavy metals – toxic mining waste that was once stored in the dam, are now in the river, contaminating its waters. Analyses conducted after the environmental crime have found high concentrations of nickel, mercury, lead, zinc, and cadmium.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only bridge in Brumadinho that passes over the Paraopeba River has a different kind of traffic lately. Cars and pedestrians alike stop to watch the muddy river while listening to the noise of the helicopters on their way to rescue the victims of Vale\u2019s collapsed tailings dam.<\/span><\/p>\n

Luis is one of the locals observing the river. How does he feel when he sees the river? With a tired look on his face, he says, “It\u2019s just so sad.” I can\u2019t explain it because the river never had this color before. We could see fish swimming here. Now, it’s all gone.” I ask if I can film his testimonial and he says, \u201dIt\u2019s better that you don\u2019t. I\u2019ll get too emotional even to get the words out.\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Paraopeba

Paraopeba River in Brumadinho. In this area, the river was pronounced dead due to the high level of toxic waste released by the collapse of Vale’s mining waste dam.<\/p><\/div>\n

The impact of the dam collapse is so huge that the mud is already changing the routine of the cities through which the Paraopeba River passes. The city of Par\u00e1 de Minas declared a state of emergency earlier this week due to the contamination of the river, which is the population’s water source.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for Concei\u00e7\u00e3o, Jair, Lu\u00eds, and thousands of others, it will be a long time before they can enjoy the Paraopeba River once again. Vale’s toxic mud has killed people and is killing the waters. “There used to be many people who came to the river to swim and fish. Now there\u2019s only sadness. The river was so beautiful. It\u2019s very sad what happened,” says Jair in a mourning tone.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tha\u00eds Herrero is a journalist for Greenpeace Brazil based in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The extensive impacts caused by the Brumadinho dam collapse range from the painful deaths of loved ones to the destruction of the everyday life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":20787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[91],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-20783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-health","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20783"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23543,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20783\/revisions\/23543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20783"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=20783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}