Cáritas Diocesana de Governador Valadares

Articulação e Fortalecimento da Rede de Movimentos e Entidades Sociais na Defesa da Bacia do Rio Doce

Community Empowerment for the Socioenvironmental Recovery of the Rio Doce Region

The Rio Doce basin has suffered for some time from the impacts of global warming, a decline in its river flow, drought, and from the environmental degradations caused by mining activities. There have been no effective monitoring practices for the mining activities in the area. With the bursting of the Mariana dam in November of 2015, a surge of mud washed over a region of more than 700km, even reaching the shores of the state of Espirito Santo. Thousands of people remain affected.

Founded 60 years ago, the Brazilian Caritas works to provide emergency relief, food security, and income generation opportunities. The goal of this project is to empower community leaders to create and monito proposals in support of the Rio Doce Basin and the population affected by the disaster.

Impact

With the support of the BrazilFoundation Minas Fund, Caritas will:

· contribute to the socioenvironmental rehabilitation of seven municipalities in the Rio Doce region;
· Provide training and encouragement for the affected population to become engaged to uphold their rights;
· Monitor government agencies and companies’ responses to affected populations, ensuring transparency in the negotiations with the responsible entities;
· Propose collective solutions for the socioenvironmental recovery of the Doce River Basin.

“We’re trying to help the people of Valadares improve their living conditions and our river. What happened was a catastrophe, and the lack of potable water has been a major problem for all of us.” Flávia Finhani, Vice-President