Deadly Brazil dam collapse raises fears of environmental woes

A week after a dam storing mining waste collapsed in southeast Brazil, the human cost is clear, with 110 killed and 238 missing, presumed dead, but the environmental impact is still being evaluated.

Authorities fear the mineral-laced slurry released by the collapse could eventually pollute the Sao Francisco River, the second-longest in Brazil, which hosts various species of fish and has many towns on its banks.

Daily tests carried out by Brazil's national water agency ANA in the Paraopeba tributary, muddied along 200 kilometres by the dam burst, show the presence of metals in the water have spiked to unhealthy levels.

Residents along the riverbanks have already said fish they relied on for food were floating to the surface, dead.

"Most of us here are very rural, riverside people, so we use the Paraopeba River to feed ourselves. It gives us fish, we use it to water our plants, and now we can't do this anymore, so many people have been affected by the dam breaking," one local, Leda de ..