Brazil dam disaster victims pursue justice in UK: 'Our world collapsed'

Emanuele Vitoria was at home with her father and brother when a torrent of toxic mud tore threw the quiet village of Bento Rodrigues in the mountains of southeast Brazil nine years ago.

The body of the five-year-old was found five days after Brazil's worst environmental disaster on November 5, 2015. It was triggered by the collapse of a tailings, or waste product, dam at an iron ore mine owned by Samarco, co-owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale and Australian miner BHP.

The girl was one of 19 people who perished in the mudslide.

"We felt as if our whole world had collapsed," her mother Pamela Rayane Fernandes told AFP.

The collapse of the dam unleashed a torrent of over 40 million cubic meters of highly toxic mining waste sludge, enough to fill 12,000 Olympic swimming pools.

The ochre-colored muck from the dam in the town of Mariana flooded a dozen downstream villages in Minas Gerais state.

In all, over 30 towns and villages were affected, with Bento Rodrigues one of the hardest-hit.

On Monday, the High Court in London will began examining whether BHP, which had global headquarters in both the UK and Australia at the time of the dam's collapse, is liable for the disaster.

Over 620,000 plaintiffs, including dozens of local authorities, Indigenous communities and businesses, are seeking 36 billion pounds (47 billion dollars) in damages from BHP.

BHP says over 200,000 of the plaintiffs have already been compensated.

It says its Renova Foundation, which is in charge of compensation and rehabilitation programs in Brazil, has paid out over 7.8 billion dollars in emergency financial aid.

Rayane Fernandes, 30, was rehoused in Cachoeira do Brumado, 45 kilometers (30 miles) from Bento Rodrigues, after the disaster.

She received compensation for the death of her daughter but says it was only a part of what she believes she is owed.

"I will continue to seek justice," she said, calling the London trial her last hope.

What BHP 'knew'

The mud engulfed the homes of over 600 people, including the ancestral home of Mauro Marcos da Silva, a 55-year-old car mechanic.

"I was literally born here," he told AFP, pointing to one of the walls of the house still standing in Bento Rodrigues, which is choked in weeds.

"Here are my roots and my ancestors," he said.

"That sense of belonging, the friendships, family, money cannot buy that and it cannot be rebuilt."

The family of lawyer Monica dos Santos, who advises an organization representing the victims, also lost their home in the village.

The 39-year-old is convinced BHP "knew there were problems with the dam and knew what it had to do and did not do it."

She rejected the compensation deal offered to the victims in Brazil, saying the victims were not involved in the negotiations.

"We really hope that the English courts will do what the Brazilian justice system has failed to do so far," she said.

Bento Rodrigues was declared unfit for human habitation after the disaster and abandoned.

Nearly a decade later, a new village built to rehouse the victims, Novo Bento Rodrigues, is still under construction.

Turtles, whales affected  

The mud from Mariana coursed some 670 kilometers along the Doce River to the Atlantic Ocean, destroying the surrounding ecosystem.

At least 6,000 families that lived off fishing found themselves without a livelihood.

A team of scientists recently reported that the mouth of the river and parts of the coastline of Espirito Santo and Bahia states, which neighbor Minas Gerais, were still contaminated with metals from the spill.

The report published by the Brazilian government in September said the area's populations of fish, birds, turtles, porpoises and whales had all been affected.

BHP insists that the quality of the river water has returned to pre-disaster levels.