A decade after Brazil’s deadly dam collapse, Indigenous peoples demand justice on the eve of COP30

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A week before what the Indigenous Krenak people now call “the death of the river,” they say they could feel it coming. The birds stopped singing, the air grew heavy, and an unusual silence settled over their village in Minas Gerais, a southeastern Brazilian state where forested hills give way to the winding Doce River.

Then, on Nov. 5, 2015, the mud came.

A mining dam owned by Samarco — a joint venture between Brazilian company Vale and Anglo-Australian giant BHP Billiton — burst upstream near the town of Mariana, unleashing a torrent of toxic iron ore waste. It buried the nearby community of Bento Rodrigues and swept down the Doce River valley, killing 19 people and contaminating waterways for nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.