Today, in a judgment just handed down by the Court of Rotterdam, Pogust Goodhead has been successful in securing the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts in our claim against aluminium producer Norsk Hydro.
We represent thousands of victims including Indigenous communities, Amazonians and descendants of slaves affected by contaminated waters in Northern Brazil. The pollutive activities of Norsk Hydro at a site in Barcarena, Pará have caused untold damage to the environment and public health in the surrounding area.
They have suffered poor physical health including deterioration or loss of sight, pain and weaknesses in their body as well as babies born with malformations.
They have lost the water they once relied on to fish, grow crops, swim, hunt, and rear animals as well as their access to any income from selling products reared and sourced from the rivers.
This is, they say, a direct result of at least ten environmental disasters at the world’s largest aluminium refinery, belonging to Norsk Hydro, which has seen pollutive waste infiltrating the land and water.
Despite this, Norsk Hydro has refused to take full responsibility and those affected have not had access to fair and full redress – and so have taken their case to the Dutch courts.
The Rotterdam District Court today ruled the case can proceed to the merits phase.
This is the third ruling of its kind this year in cases led by Pogust Goodhead, with European courts becoming the gatekeepers of environmental damage caused by large corporations. It follows a ruling allowing the case against mining giant BHP to proceed in the UK over the Mariana dam disaster and more recently the case against Braskem over salt mining destruction to proceed in the Netherlands.
