History repeated: the Aberfan and Mariana mining disasters

History repeated: the Aberfan and Mariana mining disasters

On the eighth anniversary of the Mariana dam disaster, Brazilian campaigners visit the Welsh town of Aberfan, the site of the UK’s worst mining disaster. Rebecca Jarman and Diana Salazar write about similarities between the two disasters and call for lessons we can learn.

Local people stand by the Doce River in Bento Rodrigues, a village almost totally destroyed when the Fundão tailings dam collapsed in Brazil. MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE AFFECTED BY DAMS

The Welsh village of Aberfan and the small village of Bento Rodrigues, in southern Brazil, are on opposite sides of the world, but they both had disasters. Both were victims of the worst mining disasters in recent history. The disasters were almost 50 years apart but the two towns tell the same story of greed and failure to care for working-class lives.

On Sunday 5 November 2015, toxic mud destroyed Bento Rodrigues after the collapse of the Fundão mine in Mariana. Nineteen people died and hundreds lost their homes. At least 45 million cubic metres of waste crashed 600 kilometres down the Doce River and into the Atlantic in the worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history.

Eight years later, the people are still waiting for justice. Samarco - Anglo-Australian BHP and Brazilian iron ore producer Vale - own the dam. The dam is working again now but many are still without their homes and have not received compensation. A resident of Bento Rodrigues, Brazil, stands in the ruins of his village destroyed when the Fundão dam collapsed in 2015. GUSTAVO BASSO/SHUTTERSTOCK

It was possible to avoid the disaster

It’s a story the people of Aberfan know well. Aberfan was a coal mining village in the Taff Valley, Wales. On 21 October 1966, a heap of waste owned by the National Coal Board collapsed onto the village and into the Pantglas primary school. It killed 116 children and 28 adults.

It was very similar to the Fundão dam failure. Both the National Coal Board and Anglo-Australian BHP – the world’s biggest mining company – failed to look after the way the mines operated and caused disasters that it was possible to avoid. After the disasters, both companies said they were not responsible for the deaths.

The children killed in the disaster were the grandchildren of the miners. The miners carried waste for 50 years from Merthyr Vale colliery to the top of Merthyr Mountain. This way of removing waste was convenient and cheap.

Seven very big waste heaps grew slowly next to Pantglas above the village. The residents complained about the situation to the National Coal Board before the disaster but the board’s chairman, Lord Alfred Robins, said the disaster was caused by ‘natural factors’. A public inquiry later found the board was responsible.

Robins and the rest of the board kept their jobs. No one went to prison and they offered families only a very little compensation. The villagers asked the board to move the other waste tips but the boards said no, it was unnecessary. After two years of organized protest the British government agreed and they moved the last waste in 1971, five years after the disaster. Protesters demand justice for the victims of the Mariana dam disaster in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 1 February 2019. RODRIGO S. COELHO/SHUTTERSTOCK

Broken lives

In Brazil, many years later, it seems that history is repeating itself. The official report into the Samarco disaster said that the dam was not safe as part of the dam was constructed on waste from the iron mine.

In the years since the Fundão dam collapse there is very little progress in finding homes and compensation for the communities and in repairing environmental damage in the Doce River valley. There are no new homes promised for the villagers. Local NGOs say 85 per cent of families are still without homes and it is no longer possible to live in most of Bento Rodrigues. They feel no-one is helping and they are very tired.

Some people still live by the polluted river and they have lost everything - their homes, their jobs, and their peace. The waste poisoned the river, killed fish and local fishers’ traditional way of life. The dairy farmers could no longer look after their cattle without clean water.

No-one can bathe or swim in the river because of the risk of developing skin problems. Their lives are broken.

A disaster memorial garden for the victims of the Aberfan mining disaster. The terrible collapse of the mine tip on 21 October 1966 killed 116 children and 28 adults. ANDREW CHRISHOLM/SHUTTERSTOCK

Working togther

It is clear to the people that this was not an accident but a crime, and it was possible to avoid it. This gives a feeling of injustice. BHP makes big profits, it is not doing research into the environmental effects of the mining waste, and it is trying to greenwash the company’s name. BHP says it is a sustainable company with an important role to play in a future, greener, economy but mines continue to destroy the environment around the world.

The people of Bento Rodrigues are angry about the slow progress for compensations in Brazil and they are now taking their fight to the UK.

BHP was based in London until recently and it is facing claims for compensation by more than 720,000 Brazilians, amounting to $43.9 billion. It is the biggest group claim in English and Welsh history. The case comes to London’s High Court in October 2024. BHP says it is not responsible.

Brazilian campaigners Leticia Oliveira and Paula Goes, from the organization Movement of People Affected by Dams, will visit Aberfan to speak to some of the remaining survivors of the disaster there.

The disasters at Aberfan and Mariana are now bringing together the two communities. Together they want to support each other and learn lessons from each other to hold mine owners responsible for their crimes against communities forced to live close to coal, iron, or other mines.

Many Aberfan survivors died without seeing the National Coal Board held responsible for the disaster, but it brought big immediate changes to environmental policy in Britain, making mines around the country safer. But companies like BHP are not learning lessons from the disasters. BHP is hiding behind its small subsidiary companies to avoid regulations and not admit responsibility.

The communities and campaigners have the difficult job of cleaning up the problems and they have learned most. We are hoping that the links between Mariana and Aberfan can help Brazilian victims in their fight for justice.

NOW TRY THE ORIGINAL:

https://newint.org/features/2023/11/03/history-repeat-aberfan-and-mariana

(This article is in easier English so it is possible that we changed the words, the text structure, and the quotes.)