BRAZIL
After the Deluge
Brazil’s Vale SA vowed to dismantle 10 dams that are similar to the one that collapsed on Friday, as the country continues to come to grips with the deadly disaster.
The official death toll from the collapse climbed to 84 people on Tuesday, with 276 still unaccounted for, Reuters reported. Local authorities arrested five people in connection with the disaster, including employees of Vale and consultants with a German company that certified the dam for safety, NPR said.
Munich-based TÜV Süd checked the dam twice last year and certified it as safe, despite concerns raised by a representative of a local environmental protection agency that the dam could burst and set off a chain reaction, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper said.
Because its reservoir held mining waste for Vale, an iron ore producer, the collapse released a flood of brown slurry that killed fish and prompted warnings to the indigenous people who depend on the river for bathing and irrigation of possible health hazards.
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