With the intensification of the social and economic damages caused by the flooding of the Madeira River in Rondônia, the governor Confúcio Moura (PMDB) decreed the public calamity in the state. As published in the Official Gazette this Friday (4), the natural disaster affects the distribution of electricity and drinking water, garbage collection and health care.
Diseases due to water contamination have been reported. Between March and April, three people died from leptospirosis, a disease transmitted by rat urine. The suspicion of the presence of the bacterium, which causes cholera, in wells in a riverside community in Porto Velho, capital of the state, is also being investigated.
According to the Fire Department, the overflow of the Madeira River became critical as of February 11. On March 30th, it peaked at 19.74 meters—almost 10 m above normal. This Friday (04), the waters began to decrease, reaching 19.57 m at 17:00, time of the last measurement. But, according to the Geological Survey of Brazil, in the next 55 days the population will live with floods above the emergency level, 16.68 m.
Of the approximately 1.7 million inhabitants of Rondônia, according to the Fire Department, 665,000, who live in the north and east of the state, are affected in some way by the flood. Federal roads on the border with Acre and Amazonas remain closed. At least 30,000 people are directly affected, with 20,700 being homeless and 8,855 displaced in the municipalities of Porto Velho, Guajará-Mirim, Nova Mamoré, Costa Marques, Cacoal, Pimenta Bueno and Chupinguaia.
With the public calamity decree, the government of Rondônia can hire emergency services with a waiver of bidding within a maximum period of 180 consecutive days. The National Secretariat for Civil Defense and Protection, of the Ministry of Integration, has already released resources of R$ 6.2 million for humanitarian aid. The National Security Force and the Armed Forces support the actions.
hydroelectric plants
In the decree, Governor Confúcio Moura justifies that the intense rains that occurred at the headwaters of the Beni and Mamoré (Bolivia), Madre de Dios (Peru) and Guaporé (Mato Grosso) rivers, which form the Madeira River, between December 2013 until the beginning of April of this year, caused the floods in Rondônia. He made no mention of the dam works on the Madeira River.
“Gradual floods are characteristic of large hydrographic basins and lowland rivers, such as the Amazon, with water overflowing from rivers, streams and streams,” Moura said in the decree.
For researchers, environmentalists, prosecutors, prosecutors and judges, the works on the dams of the Santo Antônio and Jirau hydroelectric plants influenced the abnormal rise in the water level of the Madeira River.
The consortia Santo Antônio Energia (which operates the Santo Antônio plant) and Empresa Sustentável do Brasil (Jirau plant) deny that the dam works influenced the flooding of the Madeira River. But since February, the Santo Antônio plant has its 17 turbines paralyzed, without producing energy, the company confirms.
In March, the Federal Court determined, in an injunction, that the companies redo the study and the impact report (EIA/Rima) of the works on the Madeira River and meet the basic needs of the families affected by the floods. The consortia filed resources to overturn the injunction in the Federal Regional Court of the 1st. Region, in Brasília, but the case has not yet been judged.
The number of people who will receive help from the consortia, by decision of the Court, is being determined by the Civil Defense of Porto Velho. The agency Real Amazon sought out the organ’s coordinator, Colonel José Pimentel, but he did not respond to the report to explain how companies are serving families.
Colonel Gregório Lima, press officer for the Fire Department, told the agency Real Amazon that, regardless of the injunction, the consortia are providing support to the families.
In a note sent to the report, the consortium Santo Antônio Energia and Energia Sustentável do Brasil reported that they are providing humanitarian support to the Municipal Civil Defense and to the homeless. The companies donated basic food baskets, mineral water, fuel and made pickup trucks, trunk trucks and boats available for the rescue of the population in the lower Madeira.
