Cleanup of contaminated Naboc River in Davao de Oro under way
DAVAO CITY – The cleanup operations of the contaminated 24-kilometer Naboc River in the mineral-rich town of Monkayo, Davao de Oro has finally commenced after a year of being put on hold due to the pandemic.
In a statement Monday, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Region 11 (Davao region) said "the river’s high content of hazardous chemicals such as mercury, cyanide, and fecal coliform has exceeded the water quality standards for Class C Rivers which can be attributed to the illegal ore processing plant operations in the upstream of the said barangay."
The dredging of the river started last March 12 in Barangay Naboc, Monkayo. The DENR said the launching was attended by Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and officials from the provincial government of Davao de Oro and the DENR central and regional offices.
During his speech, Cimatu described Naboc river as "alarmingly choked with heavy metals which are hazardous both to the health of the people and the environment."
"Our target is to make the river free from these chemicals, particularly mercury, and the only way to do it is to conduct dredging," he said.
Prior to the rehabilitation, the DENR issued cease-and-desist order (CDO) against the carbon and pulp and ball mill operators in the small-scale mining barangay. They were transferred from Mount Diwata to the Mabatas Mineral Zone in Barangay Upper Ulip.
"There were also river cleanup activities, signing of agreement between the LGU and the DENR for the rehabilitation, desilting, and quarrying of the river, site identification for the installation of mercury-recovery facilities, constant water sampling, conduct of sample dredging as well as an all-out stoppage of mineral processing operations for those who still did not transfer to the allotted processing zone," it added.
According to DENR Region 11, currently, the 9.98-kilometer part of the river "will be dredged mechanically."
"The stretch is subdivided into nine quarry blocks within the dimension of one-kilometer long, 40-meters wide, and two-meters deep in average while the 14.02 kilometers of it, mostly upstream, will undergo desilting process," it added.
In 2019, the DENR Region 11 launched the “Lihok Alang sa Naboc” (Act for Naboc) cleanup operation of the river. On July 17, 2019, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the DENR and the provincial government of the then Compostela Valley (now Davao de Oro) to rehabilitate the river.