'We lost everything because of greed': Fundão Dam burst survivors' fight for justice

BHP and Vale will be put on trial in London to see what role they played in one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters. Rachel Townsend visited the country to explore the aftermath

“We lost everything because of greed. What won’t a person do for money?”

This is the question being asked by former residents of Bento Rodrigues.

Former residents, because the village no longer exists.

As part of a team from On Assignment, we travelled to the state of Minas Gerais, in southern Brazil, to speak to the people whose lives were torn apart by one of the country's worst environmental disasters. It is clear who they blame.

On the afternoon of November 5, 2015, those living in Bento Rodrigues described a darkness descending on the village. They knew instantly what had happened.

The Fundão Dam had burst, releasing millions of litres of contaminated waste, headed directly for Bento. In minutes, the village was turned to rubble. People knew if they didn’t escape, the mudslide would kill them.

The iron ore mine was run operated by Samarco, along with their parent companies Vale and BHP, which is partly British owned.

Pamela was leaving college when news of the dam burst reached her. She ran barefoot towards the tsunami of waste, knowing that her husband and two children would be right in its path.

When she reached home, a neighbour told her: “Everyone is dead”.

“My world collapsed and I sat there in the middle of the street, where I was and there I cried. And people kept coming with different news saying they had found someone or that they had died, full of uncertainty. So I decided to go out to look and I went out and went down. And I shouted 'Manu, Nicolas!' and nothing.”

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The next day, Pamela was reunited with her son. He had clung to the inside of a car and survived. But her five-year-old daughter Manu was swept away and killed. It was five days before Pamela learned what had happened.

Sobbing as she spoke, Pamela said: “I spent five days without sleeping, without eating properly because there was nothing about Manu. Everyone came and say they saw a girl like Manu in such a place and it left us even more in agony.

"And then, they found my daughter on Gama’s Bridge, a long way from here. She rolled in the mud for a long time. And I have no idea what it was like for her, you know. Her calling 'Mum, dad' and us not being there.”

Tragically, 19 people were killed; among them children and the elderly.

Gelvana’s seven-year-old son Thiago was among them. In the moments before he was swept away, he had clung desperately to his grandmother. As the avalanche hit, he was asking God to save him.

Thiago’s lifeless body was eventually found 100 kilometres from Bento Rodrigues. Gelvana had been waiting for news at a centre set up for survivors, in the nearby city of Mariana.

“Everyone was arriving and my son didn’t arrive. He didn’t arrive and it was like that, spending one day, two days. I didn’t eat, no drinking, no sleeping,” she said.

“I stayed seven days and seven nights waiting for my son to arrive. And when seven days passed he didn’t arrive. Until then my hope was that he was still alive. And then the news came that they had found his body 100 kilometres away. And yet I didn’t want to believe it. I arrived and the coffin was sealed.”

Thiago was identified through his dental records.

“That moment, I was already without strength” Gelvana continued. “I couldn’t even walk. And that was when I went to the cemetery. I arrived at the cemetery and I couldn’t see my son’s little face. I couldn’t say goodbye. From that moment, my life was over.”

And then a strength of will comes over Gelvana. A determination we hadn’t seen before as she says: “And to this day I am fighting for justice”.

The justice she is talking about could be handed down in the British courts.

Next month, almost a decade after the disaster, British law firm Pogust Goodhead will lead a claim against the partly British-owned parent company of Samarco, BHP.

Their goal is for the parent companies to take their share of responsibility for the dam collapse.

BHP insists they already have. As a result of the dam collapse, Samarco set up the Renova Foundation to manage compensation to the victims of the disaster.

They have compiled a $5 billion dollar (£3.8 billion) package to build a new Bento Rodrigues which is almost complete. They say over $2 billion (£1.5 billion) has been paid directly to more than 430,000 people. 450 properties have been rebuilt and 90% of resettlement cases have been completed.

But it is not just compensation these people want, it is accountability. When we visited the area, residents told us they warned the mining companies that the dam wasn’t secure but claim they prioritised profit over safety.

Priscila Monteiro told us: “The residents used to talk and ask if the dam was safe, if there was any danger of it breaking. They used to always say no, that we were safe.

"We always used to listen to that. If anything (wasn’t safe) we thought Samarco would let us know. Someone would always ask how the dam was at (residents) meetings. They’d say it was safe and everything was alright. How was everything alright when this happened?”

"I couldn't speak because my throat was full of mud," Priscila said.

There are almost 700,000 claimants in the lawsuit against the parent companies Vale and BHP and the case will be heard at the High Court.

It will be the biggest group claim in English legal history. Largely because this disaster stretched far beyond Bento Rodrigues.

We travelled over 200 miles from Bento, along the River Doce to visit the indigenous Krenak community. For centuries, they co-existed with the River Doce. They relied on it to feed their families, for fresh water and to make a living. But above all they say the river was sacred. But no more.

The chief of the Krenak community Marcello, told us: “We were always on the river, we were fishing, hunting, playing. Everything was on the river.”

Marcello says their river was heavily polluted when the mining waste reached them in the days after the dam collapse. As a result, they have lost not only their river, but their identity too.

“Everything was on the river. Then you saw dead fish, some floating, some dying and struggling. It hurt and it still hurts to this day."

The river is part of the identity of the Krenak people. The Krenak people call themselves Borum of Watu. And the Watu is the river.

BHP says the water in the affected areas of the Doce River system is now back to the same quality as before the dam failure and that it is false to claim the mud was toxic.

But this is contested in other scientific reports.

We asked BHP to appear on On Assignment, so we could share the stories of the people we met, but they declined. Instead they gave us a statement, which included this:

“BHP, Samarco and Vale remain committed to providing reparations for the people and environment affected by the damage caused by the Fundão dam.”

Both BHP and Vale insist: “… this has been done via the Brazilian justice system and the continuing work of the Renova foundation.”

Ultimately the High Court in London will decide what part, if any, the British parent company played in one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters.

Watch On Assignment on Tuesday at 10.45pm on ITV1 and ITVX

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