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A DEVASTATED mum spoke to The Sun about her five-year-old daughter who was buried alive by a tsunami of toxic mud.
Pamela Isabel’s little one, Emanuelle, tragically died when Brazil’s Mariana Dam burst – obliterating towns and drowning people in tonnes of poisonous waste.
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Pamela with her daughter Emanuelle, who died aged five in the dam disasterDead River Podcast
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Dead River Podcast
Dead River PodcastOn November 5 2015 the dam bordering an iron mine in Mariana, Brazil, split wide open.
Emanuelle was one of 19 people killed by the 50 million cubic metres of arsenal-laced mud which blew through the countryside.
She was tragically ripped from her dad’s arms at the moment of impact and eventually found many kilometres from their home.
Her mum Pamela told The Sun: “The ground started to shake, and the day started to get a little dark. Then the mud came.
“You can lose your furniture, you can lose your house, they are replaceable, but the person is irreplaceable.
“I can have 10 more girls. But Emanuelle was irreplaceable.”
More than 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of toxic sludge laced with heavy metals, arsenic, mercury, nickel and aluminium filled the River Doce when the dam burst.
It buried entire villages, left thousands homeless and destroyed the surrounding environment.
It travelled 700km into the Atlantic Ocean, destroying wildlife in its wake and police had to drag almost 30,000 dead fish from the water.
The contamination in the area was so vast and entrenched that it spread more than 400 miles. Even today water in the area is unsafe for humans.
One man whose son continued to go to school in the area afterwards said his child was forced to drink the contaminated water.
A London-based law firm has taken on more than 700,000 clients – including Pamela – in the UK’s largest ever class action lawsuit to sue the companies involved.
Pamela’s story
Pamela, her husband Wesley and her two kids Emanuelle, 5, and Nicolas, 2, lived in Bento Rodriguez.
The small village was the first to be hit and was practically flattened by the tsunami of mud, killing five people and making their homes uninhabitable.
If I knew that it was the last day I was going to kiss my daughter I would have kissed her even more
Pamela IsabelThe mum, then 22, had left home that morning to go to school where she was studying to finish her qualifications.
Before she left, Pamela went to give her husband and kids a kiss.
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Reuters“I remember clearly that Emanuelle was seated at the couch.
“I gave her a kiss, a quick kiss, but then Emanuelle said, ‘Hey, I wanna kiss right. You almost didn’t kiss me… I want another kiss.’
“It’s really sad because if I knew that it was the last day I was going to kiss my daughter I would have kissed her even more.”
By the time Pamela returned home from school that afternoon, her village had been decimated.
Their house was utterly destroyed, and she couldn’t see Wesley or her children.
Emanuelle was torn from her dad’s grip by the torrent of mud and tragically buried alive.
Miraculously the couple’s three-year-old son Nicholas was able to wiggle inside a car and hold onto the grip supports on the ceiling as a wave of mud swelled around him.
A neighbour managed to rescue the tot from the car as he cried for his parents and just as he was plucked from the vehicle it was swallowed by the mud.
“Wesley, Emanuelle and Nicholas were all inside the house.
“Nicholas told Wes that he started hearing some noise, some big noise like if there were lots of machines working at the same time,” Pamela told The Sun.
“The ground started to shake, and the day started to get a little dark. Then the mud came, and each one of them were scattered.”
Wesley, who nearly died in the tsunami of mud, later told Pamela that “There was no way we could save our children.”
She explained: “He said that he had to let go because he wasn’t able to save all of them, and they were going to die.
“So each one went a different way. Nicholas was found inside the car. Emanuelle didn’t survive, and Wesley managed to get out of the mud by himself.
“He had a broken leg, with an exposed fracture. And he was out of clothes because of the force of the mud… He was buried naked.
“He managed to get to our street… screamed for help. He stayed in hospital for about one month.”
Pamela, who was three months pregnant at the time, now has two more little boys, Moises, 7, and Heitor, 5, both with Wesley.
But the couple’s marriage eventually broke down after the dam disaster and the death of their daughter.
I blame the company because the company killed my daughter. The company destroyed my relationship
PamelaPamela separated from him in 2019, and told The Sun that she blames the companies for both the death of her daughter and the end of her marriage.
“He dealt with the rupture in a different way. I was then fighting with my grief on my own.
“I don’t blame him, I blame the company because the company killed my daughter. The company destroyed my relationship.”
Pamela told The Sun she still hates the companies who were involved, and that the compensation they’ve paid out so far will never make up for her loss.
“I was really angry. I used to hate the companies and I still have hate for them.
“They need to pay for what they did, and if I could I would show them justice. There isn’t any justice in Brazil.
“I cry a lot. Sometimes I don’t even want to live, and what makes me get out of bed every day is my children.”
While the companies involved with the Samarco Dam at the time have paid out some compensation to those affected, many individual cases in Brazil are still ongoing.
Pamela received only a few hundred pounds in the wake of the disaster.
You can lose your furniture, you can lose your house, they are replaceable, but the person is irreplaceable. I can have 10 more girls. But Emanuelle was irreplaceable
PamelaShe told The Sun the compensation will never be enough to make up for her immense loss.
“It’s really humiliating to lose your daughter because of the mistakes of a company, and now they are paying 1.5 million to people who just lost a house.
“It’s not fair, and I’m not gonna be at peace until they pay for what they’ve done.
“You can lose your furniture, you can lose your house, they are replaceable, but the person is irreplaceable. I can have 10 more girls. But Emanuelle was irreplaceable.”
Pamela told The Sun: “We never expected such a thing to happen.
“The people that was to live there in that region had regular meetings with the companies, who said that would never happen.
She said the companies reassured those in the community that “they were all secure. There was no risk of a rupture. Everyone was safe, and everyone should be fine.”
Jonathan Knowles
Brit Jonathan Knowles, who lived and worked in Brazil with partner Sheila and son Enzo, told The Sun how the dam disaster “destroyed his family”.
Jonathan had spent years building up a successful business in Brazil selling water valves to local restaurants which massively cut their costs.
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AFPAfter the contamination of the area’s water, he lost the business and was left “completely broke”.
Jonathan has never received any financial compensation.
While the family didn’t lose their home in the flood they did live in one of the 230 districts in Mariana that used the river for water, which had been poisoned.
It’s destroyed the family, and we’ve lost everything. All our possessions and everything we had
Jonathan KnowlesHe could no longer sell valves to local businesses because they were unable to use the water.
Jonathan was forced to tell his wife Sheila: “I can’t stay here with a normal job, because we just won’t pay the bills.
“I’m going to have to go back to the UK or I’ll never have enough money to go back.”
He told The Sun: “I packed a bag, and went back home. My whole life was reduced to a suitcase, and so I came back.”
Sheila remained behind in Brazil with her family and their son Enzo, who has special needs.
Almost ten years later the couple split their time between Brazil and the UK.
Jonathan had to find work in the UK as a lorry driver for Morrisons and sends money back to Brazil each month.
Because of financial and visa complications and Jonathan’s change of circumstances, neither one can move to the other’s country permanently.
Jonathan told The Sun: “We’re not a family anymore, are we?
“Because, you know, we’ve had to fight tooth and nail to jump through all the other impositions that have been put against us, even just to be able to live in the same town.
“It’s destroyed the family, and we’ve lost everything. All our possessions and everything we had.
“We’ve basically lost them. Had to start from zero again.”
Their son Enzo, who was going to school in Mariana after the dam burst, was even forced to drink the poisoned water.
The political side wanted to convince people that the water was safe to drink. They were forcing the kids to drink the water at school
JonathanJonathan told The Sun: “They were forcing the kids to drink the water at school. The political side wanted to convince people that the water was safe to drink.
“When you put the tap on, it smelled like chlorine. It was full of lead, it had arsenic in it.”
Jonathan claimed authorities told parents there was no need for children to bring in their own bottled water, because the tap water was “perfectly good”.
He said they even passed a law making it “illegal for a child to take their water into school”.
Legal battle in London
Leaked documents in 2016 suggested that Samarco, the company who owned the mining complex, were warned about the possibility of it bursting.
BHP, English-Australian and the largest mining company in the world, were making billions from Samarco’s mine in Mariana through a joint venture with Brazilian mining company Vale.
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GettyBHP and Samarco were fined after the dam burst and have paid some compensation to victims of the disaster for damages and relocation.
Criminal charges brought against them for Brazil’s equivalent of manslaughter did not stand up.
This is the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history and effectively, you know, they’ve killed 19 people
Tom GoodheadVarious lawsuits for compensation to the victims are still ongoing in Brazil, and now over 700,000 parties are being represented in the UK class action lawsuit against the companies.
The current estimation of damage caused after 600 homes were destroyed and the surrounding environment was irreparably damaged, is more than £36billion.
Tom Goodhead, the firm’s CEO, spoke to The Sun at the launch of the Dead River Podcast, an exploration of the devastation caused by the 2015 rupture.
Tom told The Sun that the companies behind the Samarco dam are “morally responsible” for those who died.
And he said extensive delays to compensation have meant countless individuals who were displaced are still suffering.
“Decisions were made that prioritised profit over safety and omissions in the sense that warnings were not heeded.
“This is the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history and effectively, you know, they’ve killed 19 people,” he said.
But Tom told The Sun he feels “optimistic” about getting justice for the dam victims come October.
He said: “I think it actually hurts these companies more than it would have done if they’d actually did the right thing from day one.
“I know this happened in Brazil, and it happened 8.5 years ago, but this is a blockbuster of a trial.
“This is the biggest case ever in English legal history.”
Tom explained that BHP is the world’s largest mining company, and the profits it made from mining in this area of Brazil came through Samarco, the Brazilian company.
“Basically billions, if not tens of billions since the opening of the Germano mine complex there, flowed back to BHP in England and in Australia.
“And then this happens in 2015.
“This is the largest environmental disaster in Brazilian history and effectively, you know, they’ve killed 19 people.”
He also explains that its a “miracle” more people didn’t die in the disaster, which struck on a weekday afternoon.
“It was the fact that people were actually working away from the village at the time.
“Had more people been there, had this been nine o’clock at night, you’d have had hundreds and hundreds of deaths, if not over 1000.
“It was a miracle in a way that only 19 people died.”
“They could do one of two things, they could have either paid fair compensation back then, in 2015, 2016, or they could have remediated the environment,” he said.
“They could have done the right thing, or they could do what these guys have done and basically just do entirely the wrong thing and delay it, delay it, delay it.”
Pamela is one of the hundreds of thousands of claimants being represented by Pogust Goodhead, as is Jonathan.
The Sun reached out to both BHP and Samarco mining, who did not respond, for comment.
BHP said: “BHP Brasil remains fully committed to supporting the extensive ongoing remediation and compensation efforts in Brazil through the Renova Foundation.
“By the end of 2023, the Renova Foundation had spent approximately US$7.2 billion on reparation and compensation programs – this includes around US$3.4 billion paid in indemnities and emergency financial assistance to approximately 430,000 people, including traditional communities such as quilombolas and indigenous peoples.
“In addition, approximately 84% of the resettlement cases for the communities impacted by the Samarco dam failure have been completed.”
On the case due to hit British courts in October, where hundreds of thousands of victims are hoping to get more compensation, BHP said: “BHP’s position remains unchanged – we deny the claims in their entirety and will continue to defend the UK action”.
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