By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
On the front page of this paper last week were tailings ponds of small-scale miners directly discharging into the river chemical laden liquids used in the processing of minerals.
What chemicals? As we know, these are either Mercury or cyanide. Dangerous stuff to people’s health and the environment in general.
By the way, the photo came from the government’s Philippine Information Agency.
So what’s the government doing about those tailings ponds? Presumably, those were not sanctioned. These appear to be makeshift.
Of course, the government is the first direction our fingers would point to. Then to the small-scale miners themselves.
But the government is as effective in safeguarding our surroundings only if we are as effective in making sure it is alert in performing that mandate. How do we accomplish that? By being vocal when we see something illegal is happening. It certainly is illegal to discharge liquid with dangerous chemicals from tailings ponds unless these are made safe through approved intention measures.
Knowing most small-scale operations, they would not care at all if they are discharging poison into water systems. Such would travel far and wide, poisoning marine life which most probably would end up on people’s plates and then to their tummies. After sometime, the next trip they might undertake could be a very expensive one to the hospital for cancer or other health vagaries.
Worse, their trip could be a short cut to the funeraria.
Not to mention the destruction of farm operations or the degradation of farms or other agricultural ventures due to silt, water acidity and lack of other marine life that symbiotically aid in the vibrance of farms and fishing grounds.
As one mining engineer once said, big scale mining operation are better in the sense they are easier to monitor. And they are sensitive to fines and other penalties, especially the revocation of their permits to operate.
Small-scale miners on the other hand can just ignore things and then transfer to another site upstream or downstream or elsewhere.
The worst cause though of such blatant disregard to safety and the well being of the environment is the selfishness and ignorance of the people involved. They just care about the profits they will make and nothing more.
To them the idea of life is just their individual physical bodies. As if they will not be affected by the environment. They would not understand taking care of nature or their environs will redound to their benefit or health or safety. Of those of their friends or relatives or others they are related to in some other way.
But then again we had been oriented or educated, by and large, to think that way. To just think of personal achievements and to hell with the rest of the world.
Then there is the laxity of laws especially their enforcement. But if we don’t have lousy laws and we are not negligent in their enforcement, this would not be the Philippines. We would be somewhere else.
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