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Brazil’s largest environmental disaster in history reaches its two-year mark

Two years after the worst environmental tragedy in Brazil’s, residents continue to recover from the devastating impacts caused by the Samarco dam disaster, which destroyed entire towns and villages, releasing 50 million cubic meters of iron-mining waste and toxic sludge along the Doce River.

During the immediate aftermath, thousands of residents from rural communities such as Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu de Baixo were forced to flee from their homes and relocated to temporary housing structures in nearby city centers.

However, most of these families have yet to receive any sort of legal compensation for the avoidable damages caused by the Samarco iron ore mine spill.

I imagined a very different future,” said Júlio César Salgado, a displaced resident from the community of Bento Rodrigues.

Currently, there an estimated 300 families in Bento Rodrigues and Paracatu that remain exposed to degrading living conditions.

My entire life has been completely put on hold. All of my dreams, aspirations and expectations of tomorrow have been suspended,” resident Luzia Queiroz of the rural community Paracatu de Baixo told Brasil de Fato.

In efforts to achieve much needed assistance, families are engaging in slow-moving legal battles in order to obtain basic financial guarantees and insurance for compensation, and the use of safe technologies for containing waste.

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