Didipio River now ‘biologically dead,’ groups say

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment, said the main river in Barangay Didipio where Oceana Gold Corp., operator of the Didipio mines, allegedly release its mine effluents, is now emitting foul odor.

The thick, orange-brown siltation and the disappearance of aquatic resources—such as water snails, shrimps, carp, mud fish and other local species that used to populate the river—are indications that the river is dying, if not already dead, Bautista said.

According to Bautista, who took part in the National Fact-Finding and Solidarity Mission, led by Defend Patrimony! Alliance, along with Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Vizcayanos Para sa Kalikasan, they have discovered a Pandora’s box of ecological destruction and resource plunder across three big mining companies in the Nueva Vizcaya province.

http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/news/regions/19691-didipio-river-now-biologically-dead-groups-say