The river where work is the Andanan River, which can look really quite beautiful at times - especially from a distance ! It is about 100 metres wide, but only about 2 metres deep. However, it does have a lot of problems.
The Provincial Governor describes it as "a headache".
Illegal logging has wiped out almost all native tree cover, although it was completely forested in the 1950s. Some locals did once report the illegal loggers to the authorities, but all that happened was that the loggers found out, and threatened them. Nothing was done to stop the logging. It is very dangerous to get mixed up in such things, as "forest-related violence" is a major problem.
A lot of the uplands has been converted to agriculture, bananas, coconut or rubber plantations. Vegetables are grown in rows running vertically down the steep slopes, with no use of measures to stop soil erosion.
Huge amounts of sediment wash off into the river and are carried downstream, turning the water into something that looks more like flowing, watery mud than a clear, sparkling stream shimmering in the tropical sunlight. Bobbing along merrily in the water are illegally cut logs from within the protected area, floating downstream to collection points.
However the real 'piece de resistance' is the municipal garbage dump, serving 100,000 people, and is not so much on the banks of the river as in it ! Whenever it rains the water washes the garbage off the banks and carries it downstream where it gets into the irrigation systems of fields and causes skin diseases amongst the people living there.
The good news is that the Provincial Government has issued an Order telling the municipal authority to stop dumping rubbish there, but at present it is still operating and no alternative site has been identified.
The tributaries are very attractive in some places, and have even managed to retain remnants of the original vegetation. Given the large amount of rainfall we get here (about 3,500mm per year, which is seriously wet) and the steepness of the slopes, it is not surprising that there are a lot of waterfalls, some of which are very beautiful.
The local Environment and Natural Resources Office confidently says that there is no water pollution in the mountains. However, as far as I know, no-one has ever tested the water. What we do know is that in Mindanao there is a lot of illegal cyanide fishing and also a lot of small (and large) scale mining which uses mercury and other noxious chemicals to extract gold. And guess where it ends up…..
On top of all this, bribery, vested interests and lack of political will leads to non-enforcement of those environmental laws that do exist.
My task here is to prepare a management plan for the area which will solve all the problems and also provide secure and improved livelihoods for all the poverty-stricken residents.
Easy-peasy, eh?
