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BRAZIL-ENVIRONMENT-OIL
Picture of oil-stained Brazilian boy goes viral
CABO DE SANTO AGOSTINHO, Brazil, Oct 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A boy walks
ashore in Brazil in filthy waist-high water with a look of exasperation and
his body smeared in oil, a photographer takes a shot, and the image goes
viral.
On October 21, an AFP stringer at Itapuama beach in Cabo de Santo
Agostinho, in Pernambuco state, snapped the picture as the child emerged from
the oil pollution that has been spreading along the coast of northeast Brazil
for nearly two months.
Everton Miguel dos Anjos, 13, along with four brothers and several cousins,
had joined hundreds of volunteers that day who were trying to clean the beach
and scrub oil off rocks on the shore.
He waded into the water wearing a T-shirt but took it off when he saw how
dirty he was getting. Then he fashioned a sort of tunic out of a plastic
garbage bag.
Dos Anjos told the photographer that his mother scolded him when she saw
the pictures, which were published by major news organizations around the
world.
“I had asked her permission to help clean the beach and she said yes, so
long as I did not get dirty,” the boy said.
Four days after the photo was taken, not much oil remained on the beach.
The army had taken over the clean-up operation, and children were no longer
allowed to help. Since the beginning of this spill more than 1,000 tons of
oil have been recovered, according to the Brazilian navy.
The spill was first spotted on August 30 off the coast of northeast Paraiba
state, and it has now spread along 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) of coast,
soiling beautiful beaches in a poor region heavily dependent on tourism. Some
200 towns have been hurt.
Environmental groups have complained that the government was slow to
respond to the crisis and failed to provide proper resources for tackling
what many specialists called the worst environmental disaster ever to hit
northeast Brazil.
BSS/AFP/ARS/0949 hrs