Ronnel Nolos had a high school classmate who crossed the Mogpog River to school every day. Then his friend died of cancer due to heavy metal contamination in the river that entered his body through his feet. The Mogpog River in the Marinduque island province of the Philippines was contaminated with mine tailings from the infamous 1996 Marcopper mining disaster. Almost 20 years later, the Island of Love is still recovering from the tragedy of the worst mining disaster in Philippine history. The incident changed Ronnel’s life.
“People are not aware of the contamination because it’s invisible and affecting the environment without knowing that it’s there.” Says Ronnel, who now advocates strongly for legacy and emerging contaminants from mining in Marinduque province.
Ronnel now is a post-graduate student specialising in environmental chemistry and toxicology at the University of the Philippines. He explains that legacy contaminants are contaminants which were known many years ago to cause harm to the environment and to human health whereas emerging contaminants are contaminants whose risks are not quite well-studied but may equally be harmful.
“Although they’re aware of the mining disaster, which happened in the 1990s, the effects that it poses to the environment still remain, of which they lack awareness,” says Ronnel.
Lessons from Montana
Contaminants are still lingering today in the Marinduque environment, particularly in Boac and Mogpog Rivers. This is just like the case of the Clark Fork River in Montana, USA. The Clark Fork River is contaminated with mine tailings from the Butte Mining Company. But instead of lying in wait like Marinduque, communities and the government in Montana remediated and restored some parts of the river to resolve the contamination.
Like the rest of the YSEALI Fall 2022 Academic Fellowship on Environmental Issues cohort, Ronnel went on many field trips and discussed how contaminated the Clark Fork River was. And yet he felt assured to swim in it. It’s a relief for him to know that the river was no longer contaminated after several decades of rigorous clean-up remediation efforts.
Reflecting on the success of remediation and restoration in Montana, one thing that really instilled in his mind during his YSEALI fellowship is the collaborative efforts made between the community and the government. For example, the Old Works Golf Course in Anaconda, Montana, was first remediated and restored from an old copper smelting site, before it was redeveloped into a golf course.
I was particularly moved by the Fresh Food Box program, which provides seniors with a monthly delivery of fresh produce at below market value. The Food Bank also delivers up to 400 boxes of fresh food per month, and the cost of the program is partially subsidised by tax reductions for food donations.
Southeast Asia Falls Short on Environmental Protection
Unfortunately, it’s one of the things lacking in Southeast Asia. Ronnel laments it’s not a similar case in the Philippines as well as in Southeast Asia. Many non-government organisations (NGOs) advocate for rehabilitating the environment but it’s the support from the government that’s still lacking.
In the Philippines, the implementation of the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement System or PEISS, is still sub-par. As a result, under-the-table agreements which allow for environmental neglect remain rampant. But Ronnel is still hopeful that drastic reforms in his country’s mining policy, particularly on rehabilitation of mined-out areas, are attainable one day.
Ronnel Advocates for Awareness through ToxiCon
In Marinduque province at least, there are actually some efforts to propose projects to remediate and restore some parts of the Mogpog River. Ronnel himself proposed his social media project, ToxiCon, during his YSEALI fellowship, to raise awareness for the people who live in areas exposed to contamination. Ronnel believes that information, education, and communication (IEC) activities are important to inform the public so that they are empowered to mitigate the health and ecological risks of heavy metal contamination.
“Since we are in the digital era, we are better to use social media we have in disseminating information about these things.”, says Ronnel when asked to describe the operations of ToxiCon.
Why is it Hard for Us to Change?
When Ronnel and the YSEALI fellowship cohort were overlooking the top of the Berkeley Pit, he realises how humans are very powerful and dominant and that they can change the landscape and the environment on a whim.
“If we can do these things, like how we can excavate the environment for the resources, then why is it very hard for us to compensate for everything that we did to the environment?”, questions Ronnel as he ponders the timidness of humans not taking responsibility to remediate and restore areas that were over-exploited.
This article originally appeared on EcoCupid at www.ecocupid-asean.com, with slight adaptations for the YEP Academy. To see the original article, please visit https://ecocupid-asean.com/a-tale-of-two-rivers-comparing-the-mogpog-and-clark-fork-in-environmental-remediation/.
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