Name the disaster you will research & the type of hazard involved: The collapse of a dam holding tailings from Samarco’s Germano mine. This is an anthropogenic hazard.

Crisis, Humanitarian Aid Disaster Case Study Research Plan Templat

Identifying the Disaster

Name the disaster you will research & the type of hazard involved: The collapse of a dam holding tailings from Samarco’s Germano mine. This is an anthropogenic hazard.

Name the geographic area on which you will focus (country or province/region/city/town within a country): The state of Minas Gerais in Brazil

Name the phase on which you want to focus: Mitigation

Give a full reference for at least one source that will help you determine (or estimate) the start and end dates of this phase: I will focus on mitigation after this disaster, which occurred on November 5, 2015. The end of the mitigation phase was marked by a tragically similar disaster 150 km away in January 2019.

Ennes, Juliana. 2021. “After two collapses, a third Vale dam at ‘imminent risk of rupture’.” Mongabay, June 14, 2021. https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/after-two-collapses-a-third-vale-dam-at-imminent-risk-of-rupture/

Impact Information

Give a full reference for at least one source that will provide impact (or predicted impact) information for this disaster:

Marshall, Judith. 2018. Tailings dam spills at Mount Polley and Mariana: Chronicles of Disasters Foretold. Vancouver: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2018/08/CCPA-BC_TailingsDamSpills.pdf

Gormezano, David, Tommaso Protti & Sam Cowie. n.d. “The Mariana Mining Disaster: A journey through Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.” France24. http://webdoc.france24.com/brazil-dam-mining-disaster-mariana/

Background Information

Name at least two different examples of factors that caused this disaster, using categories from the PAR model (e.g. name an unsafe condition plus a dynamic pressure, or name a dynamic pressure plus a root cause): There was no disaster preparedness at the mine or in nearby towns; this is an unsafe condition. A linked dynamic pressure is that Brazil’s mining companies donated a lot of money to state and federal political parties, so mine safety problems were ignored.

Give a full reference for at least one source, ideally a scholarly source or research-based report, that will provide information on unsafe conditions, dynamic pressures +/or root causes for this disaster:

Fundão Tailings Dam Review Panel. 2016. Report on the Immediate Causes of the Failure of the Fundão Dam, August 25, 2016. http://fundaoinvestigation.com/the-report/

Name at least one group that was (or would be) particularly vulnerable during this disaster: The Krenak, an Indigenous people who lived downstream of the dam.

Give a full reference for at least one source, ideally a scholarly source or research-based report, that will provide information on vulnerability for this disaster:

Humanitarian Conditions Information

Name one important need or problem that characterized (or was expected to characterize) the disaster phase on which you are focusing: The disaster sent mine waste into the Rio Doce (Doce River) and onto surrounding land, but the mining company denied this waste was toxic. Their ongoing refusal to properly test or clean up the waste, and their denial that the mine waste was causing illness were important parts of the mitigation phase.

Give a full reference for at least one source, ideally a research-based report, that will provide information on needs or problems in this phase of the disaster:

Espindola, H.S., E S. Nodari & M.A. dos Santos. 2019. “Rio Doce: Risks and Uncertainties of the Mariana Disaster (MG).” Revista Brasileira de História 39, no. 81. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0102-01882019000200141&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en.

Humanitarian Actor Information

Name the humanitarian actor on which you will focus: Federal government of Brazil

What type of actor is this (e.g. internal state, bilateral aid donor state, INGO, local NGO or CBO, multilateral organization, etc.)? It is an internal, public sector actor.

Give a full reference for at least one source, ideally a research-based report (not just the organization’s website), that will provide information on the actions and priorities of this actor during the phase of the disaster you chose:

Fonseca do Carmo, F. et al. 2017. “Fundão tailings dam failures: the environmental tragedy of the largest technological disaster of Brazilian mining in global context.” Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation 15, no. 3: 145-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecon.2017.06.002.

Evaluation of Humanitarian Actor Information

Name the humanitarian standard by which you will evaluate the actor you choose: (Remember the standard needs to be appropriate to both the actor and the disaster phase you chose.)

The Sendai Framework is the appropriate standard for disaster risk reduction by a national government.

Give a full reference for at least one source, that evaluates the actions of the actor in the disaster and the disaster phase on which you are focusing: (This must be a research-based report or scholarly source, not publicity information from the actor.)

Note: If you are unable to identify an appropriate source, you will need to pick a different actor, a different phase or a different disaster.

Lessons Learned Information

Give a full reference for at least one source, that discusses lessons the actor on which you are focusing or the humanitarian system learned from this disaster: (This must be a research-based report or scholarly source, not publicity information from the actor.)

Nolen, Stephanie. 2019. After yet another deadly mining disaster, will Brazil finally heed the human cost of its ambitious expansion plans? The Globe & Mail, January 29. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-brazil-learned-nothing-another-deadly-dam-collapse-raises-questions/

Research Gaps

Note: The more specific you are here, the more help I can provide to improve your case study.

In which of the sections above did you have the most trouble finding information?

Name the disaster you will research & the type of hazard involved: The collapse of a dam holding tailings from Samarco’s Germano mine. This is an anthropogenic hazard.

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