Norsk Hydro sued over alleged river contamination in Brazil

Norway’s Norsk Hydro was accused in a Dutch court on Friday of letting the world’s biggest aluminium plant pollute a Brazilian river for years, causing grave health problems for locals.

Nine victims and an association said to represent around 11,000 indigenous families from the northeastern Brazilian river port of Barcarena are suing Norsk, seven subsidiaries and shareholders — six based in the Netherlands — over alleged spills from the Alunorte plant over at least 20 years.

“A lot of people have suffered horrible health effects as a result… That dates back at least two decades,” one of the claimants’ lawyers, Marc Krestin, told AFP.

“Some developed various forms of cancer. Others developed skin diseases… Babies have been born with their intestines outside their bodies.”

The aluminium and hydropower giant denies responsibility in the case, which is to establish liability. Any eventual claim for compensation would be heard separately.

The claimants’ lawyers say that in the latest case in 2018, heavy rainfall caused reservoirs at the plant to overflow and contaminate the Barcarena municipality’s water supply.

“Large amount of toxic sludge… turned the rivers red,” they said in a statement ahead of the case at Rotterdam District Court.

The alleged contamination has “resulted in many of the indigenous tribes … suffering from poor physical health as well as taking away their income and access to food and clean water”, the lawyers added.

Brazilian authorities have also accused the company of contaminating Barcarena’s drinking water with bauxite residues and have imposed heavy fines.

Barcarena is located near the city of Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon river.

The alleged victims testifying on Friday include Maria do Socorro da Silva, head of Brazilian association Cainquiama, which represents the families.

She has reportedly faced death threats for her campaigning.

Norsk Hydro’s senior vice president for media relations, Halvor Molland, said the facts of the case were already “being discussed before Brazilian courts”.

“We therefore believe these issues are best addressed locally in Brazil and have asked that the Dutch court stays the matter until a final decision has been reached in the Brazilian cases,” he told AFP in an email.

“(The) allegations remain unsubstantiated and there is no evidence of contamination in the communities caused by Alunorte related to the February 2018 rainfall,” Molland said.

A decision on the case could take several months.

Environmental groups have used Dutch courts to take on a number of multinational companies including Shell, as well as the Dutch government.

jhe/dk/gil