DAVAO CITY – Davao Oriental Governor Nelson Dayanghirang announced on Monday that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) had ordered the shutdown of the mining operations in Banaybanay town, following reports that mining activities in the area had polluted the town’s Maputi river and turned its water into red orange.
Dayanghirang also said in a statement posted on social media that he had confirmed the closure order from the MGB regional director Wilfredo Moncano.
“Irresponsible mining is unacceptable as it poses serious, long-term threats to communities and waterways,” Dayanghirang said. “The preservation and conservation of the environment should come first above everything else,” he added.
Moncano said the MGB central office had already “given instruction to its regional office to issue the stoppage order to the company to give way to a joint detailed investigation to find out the causes (of the discoloration of the water) and the means to mitigate the damages,” according to the statement from the provincial government.
Earlier, Banaybanay Mayor Adalia Caballero Lopez told the Inquirer by phone she would recommend the mining firm’s closure if the firm’s operation proved to be detrimental to the lives of her people. Lopez said she suspected that the mining company’s cache basin for its wastes might have overflowed during the onset of rains, allowing it to be carried downstream, resulting in the discoloration of the water.
On January 14, the town’s Maputi River was noticed to have turned a deep orange, blamed by some residents on the operation of a mining firm in the area.
The MGB report said the heavy downpour last week resulted in heavy siltation along the rivers in Pintatagan and Maputi, the two barangays that formed part of the 6,363-hectare Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA) of the Riverbend Consolidated Mining Corp. that spanned parts of the Banaybanay and Pantukan towns in Davao de Oro.
Marbin Gesher Jay Deniega, a resident in the area, said a team of environmental researchers were still awaiting the test results of the water samples they had earlier sent to the laboratory to find out if the river contained traces of toxic heavy metals that could harm fish and other living things in the area.
Last month, the municipal government of Pantukan also passed a resolution calling on the MGB to stop the activity of mining companies which it claimed were building an access road to the mining area that resulted in the discoloration of the water sources downstream.
Dayanghirang said the MGB assured him that the company would not be allowed to resume until corrective measures were done and the appropriate sanctions imposed. With a report from Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao