The federal government announced, on Friday (26), R $ 1.6 billion in investments to build 104 health services in 48 municipalities of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, connected to New Rio Doce Agreement. The funds are from the Rio Doce Fund, consisting of transfers of the mining companies responsible for the Fundão Dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais, who broke on November 5, 2015.
The new agreement, Signed in October last yearensured R $ 100 billion in new resources, which must be paid within 20 years by companies to the government, to be applied in various reparation actions to the population and the environment. The Union was responsible for applying R $ 49.08 billion passed on to the fund managed by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
In a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recalled the difficulties in closing an agreement that met all claims of the region’s population. The first agreement to indemnify the victims was signed in 2016, but it was known that a renegotiation would be necessary in the face of the dimension of the tragedy.
According to Lula, the union made the agreement that was possible.
“It was practically 8 years, when we arrived in the presidency of the Republic, that the people were being deceived, and the people had lost a little faith and hope that things would happen. And also because there were people promising things that did not exist,” he recalled.
“But we, when you learn to negotiate, and have responsibility, there is a time when you have to decide, there is time when you have to choose. Either I get the bird that I’m in hand, or I try to get two and I have any. [vítimas]It was an exceptional deal, because it was an agreement made with many fights and many meetings and many contests, ”said Lula.
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Under the responsibility of the Union, for example, in the area of health will be invested almost $ 12 billion. According to the Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, R $ 3.6 billion will be executed in the coming years and R $ 9 billion will be in the bottom to obtain income to be used in cost.
“In health, building a building, a hospital, a health unit is very good, but the difficult thing is to hire professionals, the inputs, the medicines, the so -called permanent cost. And these R $ 9 billion are a permanent check for current generations and future generations, to say that there will be no lack of resources to run the hospital permanently, to hire professionals, is a guarantee for the future,” he said.
“The Lord [presidente Lula] He took the Renova from the plan and, in health, put the SUS of our country, agreed with states and municipalities and with social control, ”said Padilha.
With the new agreement, the Renova Foundation, an entity created in 2016 to manage the reparatory process, but which was the target of various criticism due to the lack of solution to the problems. The liability of cases accumulated in the Brazilian judiciary, between collective and individual actions, involving the tragedy reached 85 thousand.
Mariana’s human and environmental tragedy occurred with the breakdown of the mining tailings run by Samarco, a company controlled by the Miners Vale, Brazilian, and BHP Billiton, Anglo-Australian. The district of Bento Rodrigues was totally destroyed by the mud. 19 people died, three are missing to this day and 600 people have been homeless.
Approximately 40 million cubic meters of toxic tailings were dumped into the environment, reaching 49 municipalities in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. The mud toured 663 kilometers through the Doce River basin until it reaches the sea of the coast of Espírito Santo.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during inauguration ceremony of the Federal Council for Social Participation of the Rio Doce Basin and North Coastal Capixaba – Photo: MARCELO CAMARGO/AGENCY BRAZIL
Social participation
During the event, the General Secretariat of the Presidency also inaugurated the members of the Federal Council for Social Participation of the Rio Doce Basin and North Coast of Capixaba (CFPS Rio Doce). The collegiate, consisting of 36 members, will be responsible for making social control of Union obligations from the judicial agreement to repair the dam and define the criteria for allocating the resources of the Social Participation Fund.
That Fund has R $ 5 billion assured for the demands of the affected communities, used in popular and solidary economy actions; Food and nutritional security; Popular Education; social and environmental technologies; Promotion of Sport and Leisure; local cultures and media; and defense of land and territory.
Lula highlighted the importance of controlling the actions to be developed.
“Now it’s us, government, and you, residents of the region, who are taking care of resources, and we need to apply it as best as possible, without allowing any deviation or any delay in that money,” he said.
Until August, the government received, through a public notice, registrations of social movements and civil society organizations with recognized performance with the affected populations. Four organizations were selected under the condition of full members and four under the condition of alternate members, also divided between entities from Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. They will have a term of 2 years.
The selected entities were:
- Movement of the dam hit by Dam (MAB-MG)
- Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST)
- Permanent Forum in Defense of the Rio Doce Basin
- Terra Institute Association of Fishermen of Jacaraípe
- Federation of rural workers farmers and family farmers of the State of Espírito Santo (FETAES)
- Diocesan Mithra of Colatina
- Movement of the dam hit by Dam (MAB-ES)
Also selected were selected representatives of civil society, including holders and alternates of the territories of the Rio Doce Basin and North Coast of Capixaba and members of quilombola communities and traditional peoples. The Council will also consist of 18 representatives of the Ministries with direct responsibility. The meetings will be in person and will take place in the territories themselves.
THE Installation Ordinance with the list of members was published on Thursday (25) in the Official Gazette of the Union.
The representative of the Dam -affected movement, Heider Boza, highlighted the group’s responsibility with the Plan for Recovery, Development and Repair of the Rio Doce Basin.
“We criticize very strongly the previous process, which was led by companies, the Renova Foundation, which did not work. And now, even with the limits we have all together, civil society, the affected, the government, the challenge of doing it works,” he said.
“We have to make the projects arrive in the communities, to reach in a way that the hit can access within what is their reality, strengthen social organizations, strengthen Brazilian sovereignty and worry not only with numbers, with results that we see on paper, but with reality,” he added.
Actions
Of the R $ 1.6 billion for health actions, R $ 825.7 million will go to 38 municipalities of Minas Gerais and ten from Espírito Santo, from the health action plan prepared by the local managers themselves. Of this amount, R $ 562.6 million will be passed on later this year and R $ 263 million, in 2026.
51 Basic Health Units (UBS) are foreseen in 37 municipalities; 34 Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) in 34 municipalities; eight polyclinics in seven municipalities; and 11 Emergency Care Units (UPA) in 11 municipalities.
Another R $ 745 million will be applied directly by the Ministry of Health in the construction of hospitals, health units and mobile dental, as well as the purchase of vehicles and ambulances. With these resources will also be built three reference units in the service of people exposed to toxic substances and a unit for monitoring water quality and response to consumption -related risks.
