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WORLD NEWS Monday 21 March 2022

Urban mining transforms Brazil neighborhoods into ghost town

By ERALDO PERES guards do rounds on mo- not just regarding the geo-
Associated Press torcycles, briefly interrupt- logical phenomena but,
MACEIO, Brazil (AP) — This ing the evenings’ eerie si- primarily, because there
part of Maceio, the capi- lence. are cases of people who
tal of Brazil’s northeast- “They’ve already done committed suicide, many
ern Alagoas state, used everything to force me to who became sick with de-
to buzz with the sounds of go, but I have my rights,” pression, lost their social
cars, commerce and chil- she said from behind her lives, family ties, friends and
dren playing. It went silent home’s fortified exterior. neighbors,” Capretz said
as residents evacuated en “I’m afraid, especially as she walked through the
masse, eager to escape at night when no one is Bebedouro neighborhood.
the looming destruction of around. The light is dim, “None of that is being con-
their homes, which were there’s hardly any. I protect sidered by Braskem.”
cracking and crumbling. myself with my plants, but The company’s press office
Beneath their floors, the I’m alone, with God.” said in a lengthy response
subsurface was riddled Paulo Sergio Doe visits abandoned homes in the Pinheiro Braskem has so far dis- to AP questions that it pro-
with dozens of cavities: the neighborhood of Maceio, Alagoas state, Brazil, Sunday, March bursed about 40% of the vides free psychological
legacy of four decades of 6, 2022. more than 5 billion reais consultations to any resi-
rock salt mining in five ur- Associated Press (about $1 billion) it has set dents participating in the
ban neighborhoods. That aside for relocation, com- compensation and reloca-
caused the soil above to owned primarily by Brazil- lished last year. Among pensation of individuals in- tion program.
settle and structures atop it ian state-run oil company those businesses were local cluding residents and local It said the program was
to start coming apart. Since Petrobras and construction supermarkets and a bal- employees and the transfer created based on law and
2020, the communities giant Novonor, formerly let school that operated of facilities like schools and legal rulings in similar cases
have hollowed out as tens known as Odebrecht. for 38 years, according to hospitals, the company and said compensation of-
of thousands of residents The company isn’t forcibly Adriana Capretz, part of said in its earnings call. It fers are always presented
accepted payouts from evicting anyone, though the university’s work group is directing 6 billion reais to individuals alongside
petrochemical company those still here said it feels to monitor the neighbor- more for closing and moni- their lawyer or a public de-
Braskem to relocate. that way. It reached an hoods. toring the salt mines, as well fender.
Few holdouts remain, sev- agreement with prosecu- The exodus is evident from as social, environmental But negotiations can be
eral of whom told The Asso- tors and public defenders above; departing residents and urbanistic measures. clouded by sentiment; the
ciated Press they imagine to compensate families salvaged everything they Wrapping up the call, price of a house isn’t the
the ground under their feet so they could uproot and could sell for extra cash, in- Braskem’s CEO Roberto same as the value of a
resembling Swiss cheese. start over elsewhere. By cluding their roof tiles. Their Lopes Pontes Simões high- home.
Still, Paulo Sergio Doe, 51, Braskem’s count, 97.4% of removal allows unimpeded lighted the company’s Quitéria Maria da Silva, 64,
said he will never leave his affected homes — more views inside the once-oc- year, including “all the ad- and her grandson were
home in the Pinheiro neigh- than 14,000 — are now va- cupied spaces. vance we had in Maceio” waiting for the rest of their
borhood where he grew cant, the company said The amount Braskem of- in having relocated nearly family to come play domi-
up. in its 2021 earnings call on fered wasn’t enough for everyone from the neigh- nos on a table they set up
“The company can’t im- Thursday. Natalícia Gonçalves. The borhoods. beneath the only lamp-
pose what it wants over- The 55,000 evacuees left retired teacher, 77, also No house has been swal- post on their street that’s
night to do away with the behind not just neighbors said she felt too old to start lowed by the earth, nor still functional. Even as da
lives and histories of so and friends, but also jobs; fresh. So she watched as was any person killed. Ca- Silva said she would move
many families,” he said in 4,500 mostly small- and me- everyone in Pinheiro left pretz, a professor in the uni- were Braskem to pay her
an interview outside his dium-sized businesses that her. Now she lives inside a versity’s architecture and requested amount, she ex-
home. sustained 30,000 people makeshift fortress behind urbanism school, said that pressed ambivalence:
Braskem is one of the big- were shuttered, accord- boards and plants aimed doesn’t mean heartache “I always lived in my house
gest petrochemical com- ing to a study The Federal at deterring would-be was avoided. and now, if I have to leave
panies in the Americas, University of Alagoas pub- burglars. Braskem security “The tragedy is happening, here, where will I go?”q