Kim’s Dream Orlan Ravanera
Imperative: Examination of the Water-Table
Of the four (4) elements of nature (fire, water, wind and earth), it is water that symbolizes life simply because there could be no life anywhere else in the cosmos without water. Water is so essential, so precious that we sometimes can’t help but be poetic about it. Indeed, “the passion of the heart burns so hot that without the cooling breath of the lungs, the flames of the heart would devour not only itself but also the entire world. Thus, next time you drink a glass of water, or bathe, or shower, or wash your hands, next time you pass a river or a stream, a lake, or an ocean, think of the healing merciful power of water.”
For those who are residing in Cagayan de Oro City, those poetic lines may not apply as water may not have a healing power, may in fact, mean sickness or perhaps, slow death. Why is this so? Well, corporations operating some two hundred thousand hectares of vast plantations on top of the eight sub-watersheds in Bukidnon which comprise the Cagayan de Oro watershed are heavily using chemicals as fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to mass produce high value fruits. This method of farming called “Conventional Agriculture” that relies on the massive use of chemicals is still as ever, remains the mode of production in our country even such has already been banned in neighboring Asian countries for the harm done to the environment and the health of the people.
If I may recall, after the signing of the Asian Free Trade Agreement (AFTA} in Cebu City in 1997, no less than the King of Thailand upon arriving back in Bangkok, Thailand, took off his robe and his crown and worked with the Thai farmers. The King told them not to use chemicals as such destroy the integrity of the soil and kill beneficial insects. He even told them not to use tractors as the Carbon Dioxide emission is depleting the ozone layer but to instead use carabaos as the wastes of the working animals will fertilizer the soil. Thus, the farmers in Thailand were able to protect the environment and the health of the people and even did lower down the production cost of rice to just P5 per kilo. In the Philippines, the farmers are producing rice at P15 to P20 per kilo. This was the reason why after the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law that allowed the entry of cheaply grown rice from other Asian countries, many Filipino rice farmers committed suicide KASI NABAON NA SA UTANG, the reason why then Sec. Pinol of the Department of Agriculture resigned.
All these years, the Department of Agriculture has tied-up our farmers to Conventional Agriculture where every one is profiting from farming, i.e., the fertilizer dealers, the usurers, the compradors, but not those who are doing the back-breaking job of farming exposed to the excruciating heat of the sun and the outpourings of rains – the poor farmers. In fact, according to the data of the UN-FAO, agriculture in our country has just contributed 0.2% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last decade, the reason why three of four young farmers have already left farming, going to the urban centers to work as janitors, waiters or drivers.
The non-stop use of chemicals must now be stopped to shift to Sustainable Agriculture which is the only liberating path against poverty and to protect the environment and the health of the people. There are even chemicals already banned abroad but are still being used in our country. How’s that? What is bad for the Japanese, Thais or Koreans is good for the Filipinos? That smacks of discrimination, isn’t it?
Before I be accused of sounding a false alarm, it is but proper to raise this point scientifically and categorically. There is a law of nature that says, “Everything goes somewhere else.” Based on that principle, it is my contention that those non-biodegradable toxic chemicals while vanishing from our sights, are finding their way in the air, into our water-table, and ultimately, into our bodies. Some chemicals don’t just seep down unnoticed to the watershed; these are washed down the river, then to the sea, particularly Mercury. Mercury is being used by the illegal miners in the uplands of Cagayan de Oro to extract gold. Mercury is ingested by small fish and the small fish is ingested by big ones. In each food chain, Mercury is bio-magnified. When the big fish with bio-magnified Mercury is made as a “Kinilaw,” “Sinugba,” or “Sinigang,” again there is bio-magnification in our bodies that would cause cancer or heart attack. I wonder how many have gotten cancer or died of stroke not knowing that these carcinogenic chemicals are the culprit.
It is the contention of Task Force Macajalar, an Earth Democracy Movement for Peace, Justice and Sustainability and SULOG, One SENDONG is Enough, an environmental coalition of civil society groups, church-based organizations, the academe, cooperatives and victims of Sendong, that our watersheds, rivers, air and soils are already contaminated with toxic chemicals. In fact such painful truth was already published in Davao, “ Of the eight kinds of chemicals, seven of which are banned internationally, were found in the air and water samples obtained from the rivers and the communities of Tawantawan, Manuel Guianga and Daliaon Plantations, all which are situated near banana plantations. Water samples have been checked and found to be contaminated in Davao.
Cagayan de Oro is similarly situated or even worse than Davao, being surrounded by thousands of hectares of plantation using chemicals intensively. The only difference is that water examination has been conducted there, we have yet to do that in our beloved city to know on how contaminated our water table is. According to my doctor-sister, Dr. Marlene Ravanera Sinadjan, the number of patients has increased in Cagayan de Oro hospitals who are suffering from cancer. In my sorties around, I’ve met parents and grandparents who are telling me that many babies especially of the Indigenous Peoples are born deformed. They told me that the reason is that pregnant women who cannot afford to buy mineral water are just drinking from their faucets. Well, most probably, our water table is already contaminated.
We firmly believe in the environmental movement that it has become imperative for our water table to be examined regularly. Perhaps, it is the contention of some people that, “no problem, we are okay.” It is like a frog that is put into a pot filled with water that is still being heated. You tell the frog, “Mr. frog, jump out from there or you will be boiled up to death.” But the frog would just sit there and would say, “no problem, what are you talking about? Am okay,” until it is boiled up to death simply because it could not detect temperature change.
We are that frog in many ways. But Task Force Macajalar and SULOG are now taking a strong and vigilant stand. We must have a firm position following the precautionary principle. This means that even with an iota of doubt or suspicion on whether the water is contaminated with toxic chemicals or not, we must not waste a single minute and act with a sense of urgency to demand to the concerned agencies and the Local Government Unit of Cagayan de Oro City to check on the quality of water. Just in case the water table is already contaminated with toxic elements, God forbids, counter measures can be had to protect the health and life of hundreds of thousands of people in the city. Water is life; if it is contaminated, it becomes a poison, a harbinger of death.
Thus, next time you drink a glass of water, or bathe, or shower, or wash your hands, next time you pass a river or a stream or lake or Macajalar Bay, be wary but this time let us join the advocacy of Task Force Macajalar and SULOG, imbued with a firm collective intent to fight for our inherent and constitutionally guaranteed right for a healthful and balanced ecology. Only then can we think of the healing power of water and not anymore, drink now and die later.
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