“It's an abandoned city, an apocalypse, it's heartbreaking.
The last inhabitants of Atafona watch helplessly as their homes gradually disappear under the ocean.
In this small Brazilian seaside town, a few kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro, the sea level is rising at lightning speed, swallowing up the buildings in its path.
More than 500 homes have already been submerged, on 2 km of seafront.
On the sand, amid the rubble, stand the last houses still standing.
About a hundred.
Among them, that of Joao Waked Peixoto.
The building of this entrepreneur could well be the next to be wiped off the face of the Earth.
“The sea has advanced 3 to 4 meters in two weeks.
And there is also the tide.
The wall that is there may no longer be there next week, ”laments the businessman, confident of looking for another house to shelter his family.
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The situation is set to worsen, in the long term, with the rise in sea level, caused by global warming, and in the short and medium term, "with the exceptional swell and long periods of rain or drought". , explains geologist Eduardo Bulhoes, of the Federal Fluminense University.
The seaside town also faces a lack of sediment, which prevents the sand from renewing itself and blocking the water.
"Due to human action, the volume of water in the Paraiba do Sul River has been drastically reduced over the past 40 years, as well as its capacity to bring sediment to the mouth", in Atafona, explains the geologist, pointing in particular to mining or agricultural activities.
Several projects have been presented to the town hall in an attempt to curb erosion, such as the construction of dikes or bringing sand extracted from the bottom of a nearby river.
But so far, no measures have yet been implemented.
The municipality of Sao Joao da Barra, a town of 36,000 inhabitants on which the hamlet of Atafona depends, pays a housing allowance of 1,200 reais (about 200 euros) per month to more than 40 displaced families.