- Title: Brazil busy cleaning up oily residue from mysterious spill
- Date: 25th October 2019
- Summary: RECIFE, BRAZIL (OCTOBER 25, 2019) (REUTERS) ROCKS ON BEACH WITH OIL RESIDUE VARIOUS, PERSON SCRAPPING OIL OFF ROCKS BUCKET FULL OF OIL VARIOUS, NEWS CONFERENCE WITH BRAZILIAN MINISTER OF TOURISM, MARCELO ALVARO ANTONIO (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BRAZILIAN MINISTER OF TOURISM, MARCELO ALVARO ANTONIO, SAYING: "We know that there are beaches that were impacted (by oil) and which were cleaned and are now fit (for public use). Less than 10% of the beaches of Pernambuco (state) were impacted by the oil. Today, some of those beaches are now clean and in full condition to receive tourists. And, that's what we want to responsibly show: that the very beaches that were impacted and cleaned are available for tourism." VARIOUS, PEOPLE CLEANING OIL FROM ROCKS AND SAND PEOPLE AT BEACH IN PROTECTIVE GARMENTS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BRAZILIAN MINISTER OF TOURISM, MARCELO ALVARO ANTONIO, SAYING: "The federal government through the Ministry of Tourism is offering 200,000,000 Reais (USD$49,942,580) in credit lines for working capital for those small and medium businesses that feel impacted and might see their profits hit by these events. We're going to facilitate access to this credit for working capital, reforms, investments of various types. It will be 200,000,000 Reais." PEOPLE CLEANING BEACH LOCAL RESIDENT, ESTEVAM SANTOS, POINTING TO BEACH (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) LOCAL RESIDENT, ESTEVAM SANTOS, SAYING: "The people that suffer are the fishermen, the business owners, the beach sellers. Their economic and financial activity is going to suffer in an immeasurable way because here we live off of people that come to visit our area, who come to enjoy our seas, our food." VARIOUS, PEOPLE CLEANING BEACH LOCAL GOVERNMENT WORKER, VERA LUCIA, SPEAKING WITH OTHERS (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) LOCAL GOVERNMENT WORKER, VERA LUCIA, SAYING: "I've been working since Sunday. At first I didn't have the security equipment and I had direct contact with the oil. I've suffered lots of headaches, nausea and stomachache." VARIOUS, PEOPLE CLEANING BEACH PEOPLE SIFTING SAND
- Embargoed: 8th November 2019 22:08
- Keywords: spill Brazil beach petroleum ocean Recife environment mystery oil
- Location: RECIFE, BRAZIL
- City: RECIFE, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: Pollution,Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA001B2LKG93
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Brazil's tourism minister said Friday (October 25) that beaches that were affected by the mysterious oily sludge that has plagued the northeastern coast of the country have been cleaned and are once again fit for tourists.
Discussing the oil, Marcelo Alvaro Antonio told a news conference that "the very beaches that were impacted and cleaned are available for tourism."
Brazil's government said Monday (October 21) that it had collected more than 600 tonnes of oil from its northeastern beaches since September 12.
Oil has been washing up on the shores of northeastern Brazil for two months. More than 200 locations along the coast have been affected, threatening marine life, authorities said.
Brazil's government has said the oil spill is Venezuelan in origin, but has mostly stopped short of blaming their socialist government for the incident. Venezuela has denied it is to blame.
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