Activists speak out about environmental crimes in Brazil
On December 11th, during the COP25 in Madrid (Spain), the delegation of Engajamundo carried out an activism action denouncing the environmental crimes and indigenous water-related genocide taking place in Brazil.
The action took place at the conference’s main entrance, where people were”approached” with a fake distribution of mineral water bottles with some liquids representing environmental disasters and indigenous genocide.
The red water represented the blood of the native peoples and the attacks they are suffering for centuries from having to protect their own territory from the constant threats and invasions of those who want to take their living space and ancestry.
The “muddy water” represented the environmental crimes that are taking place in Brazil, such as the Brumadinho dam rupture that took place in January this year, left 228 people dead and 49 people missing, and the Mariana dam rupture, which caused its rupture resulted in 43.7 million cubic meters of tailings dumped and a total of 19 deaths. According to scientists and environmentalists, the effects of tailings at sea will be felt for at least 100 years.
The “transparent water” symbolizes the mystery, the lack of knowledge about the state of Brazilian waters. It has many regions contaminated by various pollutants invisible to the eyes, but not much information about that is given and much less is known on how this is affecting the population. An example of this was a microbiological analysis of water from almost 15 points in the village of Alter do Chão, 40 km from Santarém, in the state of Pará, revealed that there is contamination by total and thermotolerant coliforms in almost 80% of the studied sites. The municipality of Santarém faces an outbreak of hepatitis A, which may be caused by contaminated water.
The “black water” symbolizing the oil that was spilled on some beaches in northeastern and southeastern Brazil. The oil was recorded in 546 locations in 112 municipalities and 10 states in the Northeast and Southeast. The spill caused damage to the region’s ecosystems. Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) recorded 135 affected animals, of which 95 died, and preventively collected more than 3,400 turtle hatchlings from Bahia, Sergipe and Rio Grande do Norte. The ICMbio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation) stated that 14 federal protected areas were affected.
