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None of 42 projects to repair
damage from the 2015 collapse of a Brazilian dam is on track, according
to a United Nations expert report published shortly before mining giant
BHP hears if it will be pursued through English courts over the
disaster.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Baskut
Tuncak, an independent expert tasked with investigating how human rights
are affected by hazardous substances, alleged miners had failed to
provide effective reparations since Brazil’s worst environmental
disaster decimated the livelihoods of over 3 million people.
“Today, none of 42 projects are
on track,” he said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council
published on Wednesday.
The collapse of the Fundao dam,
which stored mining waste and is owned by the Samarco joint venture
between BHP and Brazilian iron ore mining giant Vale, killed 19 and
poured roughly 40 million cubic metres of mining waste into communities,
the Rio Doce river and Atlantic Ocean, 650 km away.
Vale and Anglo-Australian BHP,
the world’s largest miner by market value, did not immediately reply to
requests for comment.
BHP has said the Renova
Foundation, a redress scheme established in 2016 by its Brazilian
division, Samarco and Vale, has spent about 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7
billion) on projects such as financial aid to indigenous Krenak
families, rebuilding villages and establishing new water supply systems.
But Tuncak alleged the “true
purpose” of Renova appeared to “limit liability of BHP and Vale” and
called for its governance structure to be reformed.
Renova said it was working to
compensate victims with projects such as resettlement programmes, water
quality monitoring and financial aid.
More than 200,000 Brazilian
people and groups launched a 5 billion pound lawsuit against BHP in
Britain in July over the dam failure, alleging compensation had been
slow and inadequate.
BHP said it would be wasteful
and pointless to hear the case in England, alleging it duplicated
Brazilian proceedings and that victims were already receiving redress.
A judge is expected to decide
this month whether the record group claim can go ahead.
($1 = 0.7696 pounds)
Source: Reuters |
