BRASILIA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) - Brazil's Senate on Thursday received a petition to create a parliamentary commission to investigate the collapse of an iron-ore waste dam that has left at least 150 people dead and more than 180 missing.

A soldier helps a member of a rescue team on Paraopeba River as they search for victims of a collapsed tailings dam owned by Brazilian mining company Vale SA, in Brumadinho, Brazil February 5, 2019. (Photo: VCG)

The petition was backed by 42 signatures, 15 more than the minimum needed, and was put forward by two senators from the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

According to PSD Senator Carlos Viana, the commission isn't designed to punish those responsible, but to propose more effective laws to avoid a repeat of the tragedy.

"If we had modernized the legislation at the right time, if we had allowed a more modern (oversight) agency, we would have saved the lives of those people," said Viana.

The tailings (or waste) dam owned by mining giant Vale burst on Jan. 25, unleashing a sea of toxic mud on the small rural town of Brumadinho in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

The accident marks the second such incident in three years. In November 2015, another tailings dam partly owned by Vale collapsed also in Minas Gerais, destroying an entire community and killing 19 people. It was considered Brazil's worst environmental disaster.