A dead fish is seen in the mud of the Paraopeba river, which is full of sludge on the sixth day after the collapse of a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil's giant mining company Vale near the town of Brumadinho, state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, on January 30, 2019.
Five days after a dam collapse at a Brazilian mine, residents were mourning on Wednesday nearly 360 people who were killed and went missing - as well the river they live alongside, which is dying from spreading toxic, muddy waste.
Helton, one resident, said his 28-year-old wife and his 35-year-old sister both worked at the facility, owned by Vale, the Brazilian company that is the world's biggest iron ore miner.
They are among the more than 250 missing, presumed dead, who are likely to swell the list of 99 fatalities now confirmed.
"I asked them to leave. And they said no, because they need ed the work," said Helton - who only gave his first name - adding that rumours of perilous conditions had circulated before the disaster.
Many in and around Brumadinho, the nearest town to the mine, worked for Vale. The community was essentially a company town, tied to what was by far the biggest employer in the area.
They also live in the shadow of multiple dams that have been used by Vale's operation.
"They knew it was going to break. They knew. The boys who worked there were afraid to complain, or they would be fired," said Vanderlei Alves, a 52-year-old driver who lost many of his friends.
TRT World's Mia Alberti has more.
The tailings dam - used to store muddy, mineral-laced mining waste - ruptured on Friday, sending 13 million tons of sludge across the mine's administrative and cafeteria buildings, where employees were packed in for lunch, and down into the surrounding countryside and the Paraopeba river.
The overwhelming majority of the dead and missing are Vale employees or contractors, buried in up to 15 metres (50 feet) of mud that stretched for 12 kilometres (eight miles) and was at some points up to 300 metres wide.
Getting to the bodies required painstaking work from Brazilian emergency teams.
They had to inch out into the mud and find remains by hand, many of which were then bagged and helicoptered out.
A cow is suspended from a helicopter after a tailings dam of Brazilian miner Vale SA collapsed in Brumadinho, Brazil, January 29, 2019.
Vale's market value
Vale lost nearly a quarter of its market value on Monday as a result. On Wednesday, its shares clawed back eight percent in Sao Paulo trading after the company announced it was cutting iron ore output and suspending operation of similar tailings dams in Brazil.
"The market had a positive perception of the main points," said Glaucio Legat, of the consulting firm Necton.
CEO Fabio Schvartsman said late Tuesday the dams - 10 of them, all in Minas Gerais state - would be decommissioned. He also said iron ore output would be reduced by 10 percent, although Vale said that would be "partially" offset by increased production elsewhere.
The announcement caused the price of iron ore to spike to $87.50 per tonne in the Singapore market, its highest level in nearly two years.
While investors were happier, though, Brazilian environmental authorities and local groups depending on the Paraopeba river were far from reassured.
River pollution
There were fears pollution from the mine waste could reach hydroelectric power plants between early and mid-February.
The environmental group WWF said that a forest area "equivalent to 125 football fields" had been lost, and it was still too early to know the full ecological scope of the disaster.
A resident shows two dead baby birds after a tailings dam owned by Brazilian mining company Vale SA collapsed, in Brumadinho, Brazil, January 30, 2019.
The toxicity of the muddy waste was not yet known. But communities downstream complained that fish they relied on were floating up, dead.
"Most of the people around here are rural river dwellers. So we use the Paraopeba river for food, for fishing, for irrigation, and now we can't do any of that," said Leda de Oliveria, a 31-year-old elderly care assistant.
Helton said he, too, had heard there was "a high pollution risk."
But, he said, "we are not preoccupied with the fish issue right now because we're focused on the search" for bodies.
UN calls for impartial investigation
The UN human rights experts called on Wednesday for an impartial investigation into the incident and toxicity of the waste from the iron ore mine owned by Vale .
In a statement, the UN expert on disposal of hazardous substances Baskut Tuncak urged the government to prioritise safety evaluations of dams and not authorise any new tailing dams until safety is ensured.
The dam collapse at the Vale mine near the town of Brumadinho occurred three years after a similar disaster at another one of its sights in the same region.
That 2015 dam rupture, near Mariana, killed 19 people and caused what was considered the worst environmental catastrophe Brazil had seen.
Measures against Vale
Credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded Vale's score, and Moody's said it had the company under review for a downgrade.
Three US law firms were also making moves toward starting a class-action lawsuit against the miner.
Brazilian media speculated that Vale's board and top executives might be replaced. The overwhelming majority of the dead and missing were workers at the mine.
Authorities have ordered $3 billion in Vale assets be frozen to pay for fines, compensation and employee salaries to families.
"If there has truly been negligence or recklessness by certain people in that company, they will face criminal action," Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao vowed Monday.
Search for bodies
The search for bodies was ongoing Tuesday, with a team of Israeli soldiers joining Brazilian crews who have been laboriously probing for days the expanse of mud released by the dam.
The barrier, which was in the process of being decommissioned, held around 13 million tons of tailings, or sludgy mining waste.
Friends and relatives of Edmayra Samara, 28, one of the victims of the recent dam collapse, carry her coffin during the funeral at the municipal cemetery in the city of Brumadinho, state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, on January 29, 2019.
Mourning
Jose Ferreira da Silva, a 55-year-old labourer, was blocked by police as he attempted to enter the zone to look for his 27-year-old son Josue, who worked for a Vale contractor.
"We just want to try to do something," he said, tearfully.
No survivors have been found since Saturday, only bodies.
Corrego do Feijao, the closest village to the mine, has been in mourning since the disaster. Most of its inhabitants work for Vale.
"I'm living a horror film. These are people I grew up with. I don't know how I'm going to get through this," said Cleyton Candido, who was waiting on news of his missing nephew and several friends.
Public anger
The tragedy has turned public opinion against Vale.
On Monday, dozens of people staged a protest with mud in front of the company's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.
Newspaper editorials blasted it - and the government - for not learning the lessons of the 2015 Mariana disaster.
Minas Gerais prosecutors said they have launched a probe "evaluating the criminal responsibility of the Vale company."
The five engineers arrested were part of that investigation. They were to be held for up to 30 days for questioning.
Three of the engineers work for Vale and were directly involved in the process of the facility's operating licenses, the prosecutors said.
The other two worked for TUEV SUED, a German company that in September carried out the last safety inspection of the collapsed mine.
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