Soiling the sea

Two weeks after bursting through a dam used to contain more than 40m cubic metres of waste from an iron-ore mine in south-eastern Brazil on November 5th, the sludge began to reach the Atlantic Ocean. At least 12 people died in the accident, more than 600 were displaced and parts of the nearby town of Mariana were swept away. The pollutants will damage fish and forests along the lower three-quarters of the Doce river and could soil a 10km (six-mile) stretch of coastline. The environment minister, Izabella Teixeira, calls the accident the country’s “worst-ever environmental disaster”.

Photo : Reuters