Impact report on Kaliwa Dam ‘deficient, not conclusive’

An environmental scientist on Thursday described the environmental impact statement (EIS) report crafted by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System on the proposed Kaliwa Dam as being beset with technical deficiencies that do not fully reveal the extensive impact of the P18.7-billion project on the environment and  surrounding communities.

Ruben Guieb, a retired scientist who had worked for the US government, said he was surprised that the EIS report submitted to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was accepted by the agency, considering it was “deficient and not conclusive.”

The EIS report is a requirement for the issuance of the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) by the EMB, which would essentially allow the project to proceed.

“My overall assessment is that the report lacks technical and scientific approach to show the impact of the project… At this point, I think the document should not be used because it is deficient and not conclusive,” Guieb said in a press briefing.

Questionable sampling

Among the issues that the scientist noted was the “questionable sampling” used to assess the project’s impact on land, water and air in the project site.

“What the report contained were mostly general descriptions,” he said. “If your survey methodology is questionable, how can you say that the natural resources on land actually and truly represent what is out there?”

Guieb also assailed the unusually speedy process in the impact assessment, considering the complexity of the project.

The report was done over the course of only four months, from March to July, before the public hearings took place in August.

For projects as huge as the Kaliwa Dam, public scoping, data gathering and assessment usually take years, according to Guieb.

Low-quality information

“That is a signal that the technical information may be of low quality. So it should not be a basis of the DENR EMB in the issuance of the ECC,” he said.

The Stop Kaliwa Dam Network urged the government anew to scrap the project, citing the controversies and issues hounding the dam that is considered to be the solution to Metro Manila’s water woes.

These include the irregularities in the bidding process that was raised by the Commission on Audit, as well as the continued resistance of

the indigenous communities whose ancestral lands would be inundated should the project push through.

Aaron Pedrosa of the multisectoral coalition Sanlakas said the project appeared to be railroaded so that the Philippine government could secure a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.