“Before the mining started, the environment was pristine. We lived
on farming, and the harvest was plentiful. Now, when it rains, red
water rises.”
By DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat.com
Mineral-laden red soil becomes fertile ground to people’s resistance against destructive mining.
In the past six years, some residents of Guisguis village in Sta.
Cruz town were able to buy motorcycles, as well as to improve the
structure of their houses. Residents called it “katas ng mina” (fruit
of the mines), as those who could afford were the few employed by the
mining companies operating in the village.
But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the toll that the
mining operations had exacted on the environment, and consequently, on
the health, livelihood and safety of the villagers. This was the
finding in a report of the Movement for the Protection of the
Environment (Move Now!), the alliance of environment advocates in
Zambales, which also voiced out the people’s sentiments calling for a
stop to mining operations in the area.
From March 12 to 13, a fact-finding mission led by Move Now! gathered
stories from residents in the villages of Guisguis, Canaynayan,
Guinabon and Lomboy in Sta. Cruz. The report reflected the villagers’
collective grief about the ongoing environmental destruction and looming
threat of disaster brought about by the mining operations in the
mineral-rich Zambales mountain range.
“Before the mining started, the environment was pristine. We lived
on farming, and the harvest was plentiful. Now, when it rains, red
water rises,” a woman from Canaynayan described life before the mining
companies came.
Villagers blame farm losses and rising flood waters to the mining
operations that had gradually carved out forest cover and mountains in
Sta. Cruz. Loosened soil of red-orange hue and laden with minerals
slide down and clog the waterways. When it rains, silted water spills
out into the irrigation system and rice farms.
Residents
have put up a sign in front of the public grade school in Canaynayan,
Sta. Cruz, Zambales expressing their opposition to mining.(Photo by Dee Ayroso/ bulatlat.com) The companies employ open-pit mining to extract nickel and chromite ores, which are then hauled to waiting barges in a wharf in another village.
Regional groups Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL), Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan), and the Katribu partylist joined Move Now! and its local member organizations, Agapan ang Kalikasan at Kabuhayan or AGAP-Zambales and Sagip-Zambales. A representative of the Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) was also part of the fact-finding team.
Red dust in the wind
On the rutted road leading to the communities at the foot of the mining area, one gets a good powdering of dust, a sample of the mountain soil loosened by the extractive operations. Dust hovers along the whole length of the furrowed dirt road, as dump trucks go to and from the mining site, at the rate of three trucks per five minutes. Following barangay regulation, they stop only at 9 p.m. and resume their noisy, thundering trips from 4 a.m., waking people up before they intend to..... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/03/21/zambales-folk-resist-mining/
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