The Brazilian city of Maceió, in the northeast of that country, and the aquatic ecosystem of the lagoons and surrounding areas, are under alert for a salt mine at risk of collapse, a product of the mining activity in which rock salt was sought, Therefore, authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated surrounding houses.
After declaring a state of emergency last Wednesday, the court ordered the relocation of thousands of families from areas added to a risk map drawn up in 2019, when the removal of inhabitants began after earth movements caused the first cracks in homes and streets.
The neighborhoods where some 55,000 people lived in more than 14,000 properties became desolate lands.
The governor of the capital of the state of Alagoas, João Henrique Caldas, told the American media CNN yesterday that the “imminent” disaster will be “the largest ongoing urban tragedy in the world.”
Meanwhile, representatives of Civil Defense indicated that although lives can be saved, environmental damage will be inevitable.
It refers to the environmental risk that will imply irreversible damage to the aquatic ecosystem of the lagoon and surroundings, since most of the mine from which rock salt or rock salt is extracted (raw material for caustic soda and PVC), is under water, and a smaller one, on the continent.
According to Civil Defense specialists, the collapse would be like removing the plug from a sink and allowing an enormous amount of salt to enter the water, which will affect life in its surroundings, as reported today by the AFP agency.
In this context, it was explained that the movements of the earth accelerated the sinking in the area surrounding the mine, which accumulated a decrease of 11.4 centimeters in the last 24 hours.
A statement from Civil Defense detailed that since Wednesday, November 21, the land has sunk 1.43 meters.
The mine in question is one of the 35 operated by the company Braskem, in Maceió, whose largest shareholder is Novonor, formerly Odebrecht, protagonist of the great Lava Jato corruption case.
Braskem says it is “taking all possible measures to minimize the impact” of a possible collapse, such as monitoring and preventive relocation measures, as disclosed on its site.
Source: Ambito
