Save Lake Bito! Protect the people’s source of food and livelihood, not mining!

By Eastern Visayas Ecumenical Forum
May 7, 2012

“You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.” Psalm 65:9

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Livelihood and food for the people of VillaImelda MacArthur, Leyte and its neighboring villages are the ones brought about by Lake Bito. It sustains the lives of almost 90% of the Villa Imelda populace.

When the fish kill occurred last March 14, 2012, the income of the people were suddenly paralyzed, because, not just that there had been a fish kill, there also had been a scare on the buyers, in eating the fish catch, with the fear of acquiring capillarasis, which is an ailment said to be seen on the dead tilapias.

Government agencies, particularly the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) have issued statements over the tri-media with the confirmation from the local government of Mac Arthur, Leyte that the identified causes of fish kill were the over-crowding of fish that resulted to the depletion of dissolved oxygen on the lake, the presence of the Capillaraphilippinensis and the improper waste disposal of the local residents and the neighboring barangays.

Insistently, the residents of Brgy Imelda and the other affected barangays contended that the magnetite or black sand mining operation which is only less that 100 meters away from Lake Bito was the cause of the fish kill. This was further substantiated by the circumstantial evidences that would implicate the mining operation to such dreadful incidence when the dike that separates the mine tailing pond from the entrance of the lake collapsed with the allegedly crude/oil spill that back flows to the lake.

The findings of the ocular investigation by the EVEF during the conduct of its Environmental Investigative Mission, and the result of the independent investigation conducted by the Visayas State University which was reported to the constituents of Barangay Villa Imelda last May 5, 2012 that, the mining site is three meters elevated from the lake, supports respectively to the people’s claim that the back flow of the water from the mining site could possibly be the cause of the fish kill which recorded to 22 tons of tilapia or amounted to 1.87 million pesos of loss from their income.

The entry of the contaminated water from the mining site to the lake, the use of chemicals, the dredging and suctioning activities were considered as the possible causes of the fish kill. The representative from BFAR 8 had expressed in an interview that the possible contribution of mining as to the cause of the fish kill can never be repudiated until the result of the scientific investigation through the water analysis would prove to the contrary.

Moreover, to absolve the Nicua Mining Corporation (NMC) from any liability relative to the fish kill incidence, through the approval of the Municipal Mayor without due consultation to the affected barangay, the latter conducted dredging activity to allegedly show their social responsibility to the community. That on April 29, 2012 three dredging barges of NMC entered into the lake that caused the increase of turbidity of the water instead of rehabilitating it.

Was it, indeed, dredging or mining? Such act of dredging for the purpose of rehabilitating the lake has marred the situation considering the fact that based on some studies and researches conducted, magnetite mining utilizes dredging method  that would result to the changes in the turbidity of the water, and that mine wastes and dredged spoils cause the death of benthic animals. Aside from the high grade magnetite deposits from the lake, they can freely extract it from there in the guise of dredging as part of the rehabilitation process. Further, the Municipal Mayor of Mac Arthur, Leyte even shared to the EVEF Environmental Investigative Mission Team in their visit to his office that, they will rehabilitate the lake and develop it into an eco-tourism area to encourage local and foreign tourists to visit the place.

EVEF reiterates “the appropriateness of acquiring a growing awareness of the fact that one cannot use with impunity the different categories of beings, whether living or inanimate – animals, plants, the natural elements – simply as one wishes, according to one’s own economic needs at the expense of the environmental destruction and economic dislocation of the people in the affected villages. On the contrary, one must take into account the nature of each being and of its mutual connection in an ordered system, which is precisely the cosmos.” EVEF further affirms that, ”the misuse of the world's resources or appropriation of them to foreign corporations betrays the gift of creation since ‘whatever belongs to God belongs to all’."

Due to the inaction of the concerned agencies of the government, particularly the LGU of Mac Arthur, Leyte to prevent the “dredging” activity of the Nicua Mining Corporation, the residents of Villa Imelda together with the members of UNLAD Fisherfolks Association barricaded the entrance of the lake adjacent to the dike to manifest their resistance to the entry of the dredging barge to the lake for its operation.

For this cause, the residents of Barangay Villa Imelda are appealing to the people of Mac Arthur, Leyte, individuals and organizations, church and government agencies to be with them in their struggle to protect Lake Bito by exposing to the public the real situation and by conducting a thorough scientific investigation so as to arrive to a more precise findings as to the cause of fish kill, and consequently, to provide viable solution to the problem.