The Construction of Paracatu de Baixo

ABOUT THE DISTRICT

Located 35 kilometers from Mariana (MG), Paracatu de Baixo is a sub-district of Monsenhor Horta. The community, which grew on the banks of the Gualaxo do Norte River, has a center with sidewalks, electricity, houses and public facilities, such as a square, schools, sports court, health center, church and soccer field. Further away from the center are properties with plantations and predominance of rural workers and subsistence activities. For over 50 years, residents have celebrated the Three Kings’ Parade (Folia de Reis) between Christmas and Three Kings’ Day. The group also organizes the Three Kings’ Parade of the Infant Jesus, one of the most celebrated religious festivals in the region, celebrated in September.

Since the collapse, emergency actions have been implemented such as financial aid, temporary housing for the 140 affected families, who currently reside in Mariana and region, health care and psychosocial assistance. The serious consequences of the dam collapse have generated work focused on the resettlement of the community in a collective way, in which all the residents of the place of origin will have the option to move to a new common space, maintaining, as much as possible, characteristics of the place they came from. The need to build the settlement and re-establish its conditions and ways of life reinforces the central focus of the Renova Foundation on the resettlements, which covers the following stages: