Samarco Disaster

972 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Drawbacks of corporate social responsibility to a business organisation

In November 2015 Brazil experienced its worst ever environmental disaster, when a dam in the state of Minas Gerais ruptured. The dam was located in a waste reservoir owned by the Company Samaroc. The operation was joint venture by Australian mining company BHP Billiton and Brazilian mining company Vale. This caused devastation and destruction to the surrounding communities and environment. The Samarco disaster has raised issues relating to role of shareholder and stakeholder theory in relation to management decision making. These theories will be discussed and what action BHP should take in order in order to balance the interests of their shareholders while ensuring they have adequately compensated the stakeholders who have been affected by …show more content…

Reports showed that the dam had a history of problems that was linked to poor construction in 2007. In 2014 the original designer of the dam was asked to review the dams condition. He reported that he saw ruptures in the dam wall and that Samarco needed to install monitoring devices, to ensure that if further deterioration occurred action could be taken to correct the problem. It appears that Samarco ignored this advice. The dam also had problems with drainage causing to much water in the tailing. Which eventually caused the eastern wall of the dam to collapse. Production had also been increased to minimise the impact on the company of a significant fall in the iron ore …show more content…

Samarco had their mining licence suspended by the Minas Gerais Government. They will be liable to pay for compensation to the individuals affected and for the remediation of communities and environment. They will also face legal claims in the form of criminal charges, potential civil charges from families and affected parties and class actions for communities. They will will face costs of rebuilding the dam if reopened. Their corporate reputation is jeopardized as they have had a had a disaster occur at one of their sites. This could mean that they have issues with safety standards and tailings at their other sites which may need to be

Show More
Related

  • Who Is Responsible For Cleanup Under CERCLA?

    482 Words  | 1 Pages

    party in the past placed hazardous wastes there. ( The seller of a foundry was

    Read More

  • Dorothy Case: A True Healthcare Professional

    1916 Words  | 4 Pages

    The South Fork Dam collapsed and unleashed 20 million tons of water from its reservoir. A wall of water, reaching up to 70 feet high, swept 14 miles down the Little Conemaugh River Valley, carrying away steel mills, houses, livestock and people. At 4:07 p.m., the floodwaters rushed into the industrial city of Johnstown, crushing houses and downtown businesses in a whirlpool that lasted 10 minutes. (New York Times, 1889).

    Read More

  • Grand Coulee Dam

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    The primary goal of the dam, irrigation, was forgotten as the war time need for electricity increased. Aluminum smelting was vital to the war effort. Aluminum smelting requires substantial amounts of electricity and hydroelectric power plants are often built to provide electricity for these smelts. The electricity was also used to produce uranium for the Manhattan Project. After the war ended the original goal of irrigation resumed. Additional dams, siphons and canals were constructed that turned the coulee into a vast supply network that allowed the desert to bloom.

    Read More

  • The Hoover Dam

    1748 Words  | 4 Pages

    The use of turbines from dams to provide power was a brilliant idea until water levels started running lower than normal. The water waste from humanity is directly contributing to portions of it, aside from drought conditions affected by pollution, widespread fires battled, and more adds to the depletion thereof. When humanity is relying on power provided from dams to handle the demand, they are essentially relying on the assumption that water levels will always be there to provide it. The Hoover Dam provides power to the southwestern portion of the USA that has a large number of people.

    Read More

  • Key Points Of The Great Depression

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    What: it gave jobs to unemployed workers. 726 ft high and 1,244 feet long. World's tallest dam, and second largest dam. Provided electricity and flood control, and regular water supply.

    Read More

  • Will the Real Lupe Garza Please Stand Up?

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many stakeholders in this case and each stakeholder could be affected in various situations.

    Read More

  • Johnstown Flood

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    The state offered to sell the canal, the railroad company bought it for the right of ways yet had no need to maintain the dam, which due to neglect, broke for the first time in 1862. McCullough stresses that man was responsible for the dam and its weaknesses nearly thirty years before the great flood as he explains how the initial repair work was carried out by unqualified people and how the discharge pipes were blocked up.... ... middle of paper ... ... McCullough makes a firm argument for the responsibility of man, and asserts the blame on the necessary people, therefore I feel he makes a fair and accurate assertion which I would agree with.

    Read More

  • Friedman vs Freeman

    1937 Words  | 4 Pages

    In contrast , the shareholder theory organisations or organisation's decision-makers only have the responsibility to their shareholders by increasing the organisation profits and should only make the decisions to increase as much as possib...

    Read More

  • Belo Monte Dam

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    If the dam break to surrounding areas the outcomes will be devastating, so it’s a risk that should not be taken. If the dam is built many other dams-some say at least 6-will need to be built in order for the dam to be more efficient. This dam will cause electricity to fuel the mining and metal processes in Para state which will be dirty energy. The expense of the dam is more than just it’s cost, ten thousands of people will be needed to move.

    Read More

  • The Benaraby Crash

    84 Words  | 1 Pages

    At 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon, a vehicle carrying two men rolled off Awoonga Dam Rd at Benaraby and landed on its roof.

    Read More

  • Ratio Analysis for Facebook

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    D’Amato, E. (2010). Australian Shareholders’ Association: Standing Up for shareholders – The top 15 financial ratios. Australia: Lincoln Indicators Pty Ltd.

    Read More

  • An Assessment of BP's Risk Management Issues and Poor Response to the Oil Spill

    3188 Words  | 7 Pages

    Business risk management has been a widely crucial tool for firms to include in their operations and its importance cannot be overlooked. In the case of British Petroleum (BP) Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill in 2010, there was negligence and lack in the contingency plan and response of the company to the risks that arose. It became evident in this analysis that BP’s manner of handling the incident had a massive financial implication that ensued negative public perception and company reputation and value.

    Read More

  • Alternatives to Building More Dams

    2311 Words  | 5 Pages

    IYER, R.I. (19X9) "Large Dams: The Right Perspective.' Economic and Political Weekly, 14, 107- 116.

    Read More

  • Risk Management Framework Essay

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    Inter -company risk is a risk that relates to many companies and may oblige treatment by multiple organisations to be effective. As the Queensland public sector commences on a lot of major reform initiatives, intercompany risk management will definitely have a high level of

    Read More

  • Stakeholders in Airport Decision Making

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stakeholders are those groups or individual in society that have a direct interest in the performance and activities of business. The main stakeholders are employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, financiers and the local community. Stakeholders may not hold any formal authority over the organization, but theorists such as Professor Charles Handy believe that a firm’s best long-term interests are served by paying close attention to the needs of each of these stakeholders. The modern view is that a firm has responsibilities to all its stakeholders i.e. everyone with a legitimate interest in the company. These include shareholders, competitors, government, employees, directors, distributors, customers, sub-contractors, pressure groups and local community. Although a company’s directors owes a legal duty to the shareholders, they also have moral responsibilities to other stakeholder group’s objectives in their entirely. As a firm can’t meet all stakeholders’ objectives in their entirety, they have to compromise. A company should try to serve the needs of these groups or individuals, but whilst some needs are common, other needs conflict. By the development of this second runway, the public and stakeholders are affected in one or other way and it can be positive and negative.

    Read More

More about Samarco Disaster

Open Document