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Friday, April 29, 2005
Alliance hits power firm on Lake Lanao dilemma
By Judy A. Egar
Pilgrim Intern
A MULTI-sectoral environment coalition scored Thursday the National Power Corp's failure to address problems plaguing the Agus dams in the Lake Lanao area as well as construction of irrigation systems there.
The Ranao Claims Against the Power Plants (RCAPP) movement presented their litany of complaints in a press conference for Senator Pia Cayetano held at a local hotel.
In his speech, RCAPP representative Ali Diampuan voiced the group's call to Cayetano, chair of the environment committee, for Napocor officials to resign from their posts as a result of these failures.
Diampuan said the irregular openings and closures of three regulation dams in the Agus river/Agus 1 tunnels brought abnormal fluctuations of water levels resulting to floods and drying of over 40,000 hectares of farmlands in the Basak/Baloi plains in Lanao provinces.
Aside from this, he said thousands of Maranao fisherfolks have lost their livelihoods.
He also said the Napocor's cloud seeding activities in order to spur rainfall have inflicted health problems among the Maranao residents in Lanao provinces, causing 402 deaths.
It was learned that Napocor was fined P150,000 by the Environmental Management Board (EMB) last Sept. 8, 2004 for its failure to comply with three conditions stipulated under the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) dated January 14, 1992.
These include the Napocor's failure to build irrigation projects in the Basak area and around Lake Lanao. The Napocor also reportedly violated the 702 sea level meter in its construction of the dams.
Diampuan likewise noted the failure by Napocor to organize the Environment Guaranty Fund (EGF) to pay damages to affected residents and failure to monitor waterborne disease present in the water lakes.
The Napocor officials present then provided documents to show that their agency is doing their best to address these concerns while ensuring stable power supply through Region 10 and the rest of Mindanao.
They also assured that they didn't violate the 702-meter sea level requirement and the water level in Lake Lanao remains stable.
For her part Sen. Pia Cayetano said reports of the lowering of the Lake Lanao water level may be caused by seasonal weather phenomena like El Niño.
She also said she will discuss complaints regarding Lake Lanao during the Senate environment committee hearings.
(April 29, 2005 issue)
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