Brazilian city in Amazon declares emergency after huge sinkholes appear

Authorities in a city in the Brazilian Amazon have declared a state of emergency after huge sinkholes opened up, threatening hundreds of homes.

Several buildings in Buriticupu, in Maranhão state, have already been destroyed, and about 1,200 people of a population of 55,000 risk losing their homes into a widening abyss.

“In the space of the last few months, the dimensions have expanded exponentially, approaching substantially closer to the residences,” an emergency decree issued by the city government earlier this month said about the sinkholes.

The recent sinkholes are an escalation of a problem that residents of Buriticupu have been watching unfold for the last 30 years, as rains slowly erode soils made vulnerable by their sandy nature, plus a combination of poorly planned building work and deforestation.

The large soil erosions are known in Brazil as “voçoroca”, a word of Indigenous origins that means “to tear the earth” and is the equivalent of sinkholes.

The problem becomes worse in periods of heavy rain such as the current one, says Marcelino Farias, a geographer and professor at the Federal University of Maranhao.

Antonia dos Anjos, who has lived in Buriticupu for 22 years, fears more sinkholes will soon appear. “There’s this danger right in front of us, and nobody knows where this hole has been opening up underneath,” the 65-year-old said.

Buriticupu secretary of public works, and an engineer, Lucas Conceiçao said the municipality clearly does not have the capacity to find solutions for the complex sinkhole situation.

“These problems range from the erosion processes to the removal of people who are in the risk area,” he said.