ENVIRONMENT advocates urged the City Council of Davao to fast track the passage of an ordinance declaring Davao City as a mining free zone.
The City Council is set to convene the committee on the environment headed by Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang to discuss the committee's proposal of the "No Mining Ordinance" in the city.
In a statement e-mailed to Sun.Stare Davao Saturday, Mary Ann V. Fuentes, executive director of Interface Development Interventions (Idis), said the city is a "place of watersheds that cannot be denied and mining is a step backwards from all of proactive strategies."
In a previous terrain analysis conducted by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Davao Region, Fuentes said the agency had identified eight major watersheds and several tributaries in the city's jurisdiction, which such natural bounty has endowed the city with one of the world's top sources of high quality drinking water and favored the development of agriculture, fisheries, and eco-tourism industries.
"Recognizing its importance, former Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio adopted the MGB study and later used the findings as basis to formulate, and eventually pass the Watershed Code in 2007 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations in 2008," Fuentes said.
She added that several national laws also uphold the importance of saving the integrity of the watersheds. Farm lands are also exempt from mining, Fuentes said.
In July 2012, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III issued Executive Order 79 which explicitly prohibits mining in "prime agricultural lands, in addition to lands covered by Republic Act 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, as amended, including plantations and areas devoted to valuable crops, and strategic agriculture” and fisheries development zones, refuges, and sanctuaries, declared as such by the secretary of the Department of Agriculture."
The executive order also provides the tourism development areas identified by the National Tourism Development Plan and, "other critical areas, island ecosystems, and impact areas of mining as determined by current and existing mapping technologies, that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources may hereafter identify pursuant to existing laws, rules, and regulations, such as, but not limited to, the Nipas Act" are closed to mining.
"Davao City's Development Plan also echoes similar development thrusts to ensure food security of Dabawenyos. Its agricultural lands must be protected to sustain its communities; its healthy watersheds must be maintained and preserved," Fuentes said.
Fuentes said mining is a step backwards from all these proactive strategies. She added that it is very resource extractive industry that lay waste to the forests contaminating water sources with poisonous chemicals, and polluting coasts with silt and toxic tailings.
Fuentes said the negative impact to the environment and the society are staggering and irreversible, and will stretch through generations, adding that Davao City can push for a sustainable development agenda without resorting to destructive industry like mining.
"The potential destruction brought about mining far outweighs its perceived economic contribution. We therefore call on the City Council to fast track the passage of an ordinance declaring Davao City as a Mining Free Zone," Fuentes said.