On January 25th, 2019, a dam in the Brazilian State of Ninas Gerais collapsed killing more than 100 people and leaving hundreds more missing. Minas Gerais is a huge mining state, and this dam was part of the extensive mine network. This mine was owned by a large mining company, Vale. In 2015, another mine dam owned by Vale burst and killed 19 people. Vale has already recieved scrutiny for malpractices and environmental regulations. Weeks before the collapse, the dam was certified as "low-risk" by Brazil's National Mining Industry. Now, questions are being raised about all of the other dams built and if they are actually stable. On Tuesday, the Regional Development Minister Gustavo Canuto revealed the decision to inspect the conditions of more than 3,300 dams aross Brazil. On the list of "high-risk" dams, 200 are mining dams, and 70 of them are built similarly to the mine that collapsed. In March, June and September, inspectors with Vale reviewed the mine and saw nothing out of order. The Ministry of Mines and Energy told CNN that their disaster response department will revise the national policy on dam safety and investigate possible causes of the collapse.
Read more here.
Questions:
1. In your opinion, what actions should be done in order to make the dams on the high-risk list safer?
2. Why don't you think we have problems similar to this in the United States?
My Opinion:
1. I think better spillways leading off from the dams should be put in place for those high-risk dams. It would help keep water levels down and lower the chances of it becoming too full. Also making sure that the mine dams are inspected more often than the other dams, even if they are low-risk, could help ensure their safety.
2. I think that here in the United States we have better regulations techniques than in other countries such as Brazil. We also have better utilization of geologists to help engineers design and construct the dams.
Replies
Well done Lucy!
I think that there should be better procedures and inspections to help keep citizens more safe. Have a backup wall just incase something like this happens. I think that we have not as many problems like others do, due to the fact that we go through so many inspections and procedures to make sure they won't break. And we don't have as many floods as others due.
I think there should be inspections done by third parties during construction to make sure the dam is safe. I think we don't have problems like this in the U.S. because construction is more heavily regulated and there are many requirements that must be met.
I would think hiring batter enginers to make a better design for the dam and make it out of better matieral so its stronger and dosent brake/colaps
We dont have enginers that are designing good enough dams to protect where any citys or towns around them and like I said make they out of stronger brick
I am not sure what I could do in order to make the dams on the high-risk list safer. Obviously, something needs to happen. They shouldn't be high risk at all. I'm sure we have some problems like this in the U.S. we don't hear about or know about.
I think that the dams should be on constant watch to make sure that the water level never rises above the dam. Also the high risk dams should be constantly monitered and inpsected by multiple people to reduce bias. I think that we hold our dams to a greater standard so that the risk of them failing is lower because their made better and stronger.
I think those should be inspected first and inspected by an outside company or the governmen. The inspection that were done by the mining company itself doesn't seem to be truthful because the dam's failed. If no one is checking up on these companies they might be passing high visk things so the company doesn't have to spend the money on fixing them.
To make thus situation safer, you have to make sure it's safe and make sure it works. I also think that better spillways would help, as it would help water levels down and making sure the dams don't fill up as much. I think we have good workers and maybe more advanced technology and information so were safe.
I agree with you. The United States does have good workers due to the education and schooling provided for people. Like we both had said, better spillways could help a lot with potential overflow of the dams. They would help keep workers and individuals living in towns around the dam safer.
1) I think just taking more precations. I think that just like in school, peopel don't check things over enough. I think that it should have been checked over more. I think that people just need to check things over more.
2) I think that maybe we take things a little bit more seriously. I think that over here we know what is going on and we know what to do. I think that we also check things over more and we also know what to do.
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