Mount Diwata: The Legacy of Mercury in a Poisoned Community

At the height of the Mt. Diwata gold boom, more than 100,000 people lived and worked in Diwalwal. Today, the town is home to an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 miners and their families, including thousands of children, who are constantly breathing mercury fumes and dust from the ore processing that goes on all around them.
Drainage from the mines courses through the streets of Diwalwal nonstop, carrying mercury, cyanide and other toxic chemicals into the Naboc and Agusan River. The Blacksmith Instituted cited the gross mercury and cyanide contamination of these rivers when it named Diwalwal one of the most polluted mining sites in the world.
No one disputes that Diwalwal is an environmental nightmare. Drinking water must be piped into the town through a spaghetti-like tangle of plastic pipes laid on the ground. "Don't go in the water. Don't even touch it," one local warned.
http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/asia-philippines-mount-diwata-legacy-mercury-poisoned-community