Brazil's Pataxo depended on a river that's now polluted with mud

the dam collapse that happened earlier this year in brazil had consequences, a large of which are of course now going to be shouldered by indigenous tribes that brazil's newest president, bolsonaro, probably does not give a fuck about:

The 82 people who live here used the Paraopeba river as their main source of food and water. But when the upriver Corrego de Feijao dam burst on January 25, it spilled nearly 12 million metric cubes of mine waste into the river and surrounding area, killing more than 100 people and wreaking havoc on the environment and the community's livelihood.
A helmet, which likely belonged to a mine worker, floated by. Tree logs, plastic debris and dead fish swirled in a whirlpool of thick brown water
"The smell is unbearable. Likely there're body parts in there, what do we do if one washes up and our children find it? It's infuriating," Rosa said.

"Today when I got to the river and I saw some dead chickens floating by I wanted to jump in there myself, God forgive me," she told Al Jazeera.
"It's completely contaminated, they killed the river. It's dead," she said.
Daily reports by the National Agency for Water report high quantities of heavy metals in the waters of the Paraopeba. These include manganese, iron, aluminium, nickel, lead, mercury, zinc, cobalt and even arsenic, among others.
According to the agency's report from January 30, "the biggest violations were observed among the levels of lead and mercury ... Values of up to 21 times the value of the class limit were recorded."

but of course, the impacts don't stop there and probably won't stop there, despite the commitments of Vale, the corporation overseeing this clusterfuck of a situation:

More than 200km downstream of the dam collapse, the Paraopeba meets the Sao Francisco river. It flows through six Brazilian states, supplying water for millions of people, until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The flow of the sea of mud continues to spread several kilometres a day like a toxic train with no brakes towards the Sao Francisco and is expected to reach its mouth later this month.
Six days after the dam collapse, Vale, the company that owned the Corrego de Feijao mine, announced a contingency plan to stop the residues from reaching the Sao Francisco river.
The company said it will monitor 210km of the Paraopeba river from the point where the toxic waste entered the stream up to the point where it reaches the Sao Francisco river. Vale said it has started cleaning and dredging heavy debris from the first 40 kilometres of the affected portions of the Paraopeba river. As of last week, the company had installed at least three "filter-like barriers" to prevent the clouded toxic waters from spreading.

Although Vale has repeatedly said the dam was monitored and approved by engineers just weeks before the disaster, a Reuters investigation found that the company knew the dam had a heightened risk of rupturing.
Since the disaster, Vale has rushed to suspend dozens of dams and raised the risk level on many others.

and of course, the impacts of all of this are likely to be long lasting, regardless of what happens or how successfully the worst-case scenario is averted:

The massive and sudden deforestation along with the constant presence of the contaminated mud will bring serious health problems to the local populations.
"This mud will turn into dust that will cause breathing problems for the most affected communities", said Marcus Vinicius Polignano, professor of medicine at Minas Gerais University, FMG.
Polignano told Al Jazeera some infectious diseases, normally contained inside the forested areas, can also threaten locals. "The most common is yellow fever." he said, adding that "we are advising everyone to get vaccinated because there is a high risk of infection".

fun stuff.