Fiemg data refers to the period from 1991 to 2023; floods and floods were the events that caused the most deaths
Brazil accumulates losses of R$792.7 billion resulting from environmental disasters in the period from 1991 to 2023. The data are from a study by Fiemg (Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais), which also shows that occurrences increased by 140% from 2015 to last year. Read the complete of the study (PDF – 6 MB).
Although the country has a favorable geographical position with regard to environmental disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, this does not exclude Brazil from the occurrence of other types of disasters. The Fiemg survey identified that the country mainly accumulates climatological, meteorological and hydrological catastrophes. Read below the definition of each one according to the Snake (Brazilian Classification and Coding of Disasters):
- climatological: drought, drought, forest fire and low humidity;
- meteorological: cold/heat waves, intense rain, hail, tornadoes and windstorms;
- hydrological: floods, flash floods and flooding.
According to the study, climatological events represented 56.5% of total losses in the period, while hydrological events were the most fatal. The country recorded 67,230 environmental incidents in the period, which resulted in 5,142 deaths. Hydrological disasters (floods and floods) killed 4,288 people, equivalent to 83.4% of the total, even though they accounted for 39% of the occurrences.
The Fiemg survey did not consider the floods that hit Rio Grande do Sul at the end of April and beginning of May this year. The event was the biggest disaster in the history of the State and one of the biggest calamities in the country. If the number is updated in a future study on the topic, the expectation is that the calculated amount of material and human damage would be exponentially greater.
Fiemg attributes the increase in occurrences in the last 8 years to climate change and the lack of planning by the federal and state governments to invest in disaster prevention, especially those associated with rain.
HYDROELECTRIC POWER CAN BE A SOLUTION
Aiming at mitigating natural disasters and encouraging renewable energy sources to reduce the impact of the energy sector on the environment, Fiemg outlined a plan to increase the number of hydroelectric projects in the country, especially plants with reservoirs – those that create large lakes of water.
The entity’s logic is that in addition to producing clean energy, these plants are capable of absorbing a large part of the rain in their reservoirs, unlike run-of-the-river hydroelectric plants, which take advantage of the strength of river currents to produce energy, without needing to store water. These projects take more planning time and more costs to get off the ground, but Fiemg says that, in a scenario of increased hydrological occurrences, these projects become more necessary.
To the Power360the president of Fiemg, Flávio Roscoe, declared that it is necessary to make state environmental laws from the late 90s and early 2000s more flexible, which hampered the viability of large power plant projects with reservoirs. In addition to producing cheap energy, which would reduce the impact on consumers’ electricity bills, Roscoe declared that the environmental protection factor can prevent new deaths and material losses.
“A way of containing that no one talks about or discusses are the large lakes plants, the run-of-the-river plants are of no use”declared Roscoe.
The study gives as an example the Três Marias hydroelectric plant, in the central region of Minas Gerais, and covers the municipalities of São Gonçalo do Abaeté, Felixlândia, Morada Nova de Minas, Biquinhas, Paineiras, Pompéu, Martinho Campos, Abaeté and Três Marias. In January 2022, the hydroelectric plant managed to control a volume of rainfall 102% above the historical average for the month in the region in 1 day.
On the other hand, the Guaíba River, which overflowed into Rio Grande do Sul, has 3 main hydroelectric plants, all run-of-river. The study shows that the plants were unable to retain the large volume of water. According to the survey, if there were a plant with the capacity of Três Marias in the main affected area in the State, 67% of the river’s flow would be controlled.
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