The Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), an anti-mining advocacy network and people’s movement composed of more than 80 organizations from mining-affected communities and civil society organizations, is pushing the government to use geohazard maps to re-examine mining tenements and abandoned mines to prevent future mining disasters. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been using the P60 million geohazard mapping study of the Philippines identify landslide and flood prone areas in the country.
According to Jaybee Garganera, ATM National Coordinator, if the geohazard maps were maximized and integrated effectively in land use planning, land development, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, it will strategically mitigate mining disasters.
“The top landslide prone and flood prone provinces such as Benguet, Mt. Province, Kalinga Apayao, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, etc. identified by DENR are the same provinces which host big mining operations in the country,” said Garganera. "These geohazard areas impacted both by bad weather and mining put communities at high-risk to catastrophe.”
Also according to him, as of last year, Benguet has three big mining operations and three abandoned mines. The typhoons and landslides experienced by the mining host communities of Itogon and Manyaka last year affected at least 50 families which resulted in the evacuation of their homes.
Mining is a high-risk industry especially here in the Philippines where open-pit mining is practised resulting to the disturbance of massive land areas. He further stressed that “this can decrease ground water depth and natural filtration, and increase ground water contamination. Furthermore, when an area is opened to mining, Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) may happen, which occurs when sulphide-bearing minerals in the rock are exposed to air and water, changing the sulphide into sulphuric acid that can devastate aquatic habitats.”
Santos Mero, the Deputy Secretary General of the Cordillera People’s Alliance stated that because of the province’s geohazard susceptibility and the mining impacts, Benguet have experienced a series of disasters even before the geohazard map came out. “Sadly, even the rice terraces in Benguet along the Agno and Abra rivers are not spared from mining. Mining affects the water that irrigates the terraces," he added.
According to Mero, a geohazard map strengthens the group’s argument with the government to cease the on going mining operations in Benguet. He also said that the affected communities’ want full rehabilitation of the area, reforestation, and compensation of disrupted livelihood as a result of the mining operations in their communities.
At least eight mine tailing dam failures due to the heavy rain falls and typhoons in the country have been recorded by the Philippine Indigenous Peoples Link (PIPLinks) since 1982 to 2007. According to Andy Whitmore, PIPLinks communications and research officer, dam failures caused massive fish kills, land and water contamination by toxic heavy metals, damage to agriculture, displacement and economic disruption of mining affected communities.
The Philippines has been identified as one of the top 10 countries at climate risk according to GermanWatch (2008). Whitmore said that because of climate change, the Philippines is experiencing drastic weather events, mine tailing dam failures, and other mining disasters that are most likely to happen with the government’s poor disaster risk reduction plan and mining monitoring and regulation. He further added that geohazard prone areas should be declared no-mining zones.
“The Philippines, given its geography, topography and poor regulatory regime, is prone to mining disasters and other environmental problems; tailings waste pollution has contaminated at least 14 major river systems in the country; abandoned mines are now showing signs of acid mine drainage,” said Blas Tabaranza, Executive Director of the environmental group HARIBON. He also stated that the combination of geohazard risk and the effects of mining operation impacts topped with drastic weather conditions, will all results in one big catastrophe.
“As of September 2009, there are 348 mining tenements that amount to 744,199 hectares spread across the country. The geohazards study is an added reason why government should not revitalize and prioritize mining. DENR must stop the issuance of mining permits and review previously issued mining tenements,” said Judy Pasimio, Executive Director of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center
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