Farmers, envi activists warn against attempts to amend watershed code in favor of Hedcor

Farmers, envi activists warn against attempts to amend watershed code in favor of Hedcor

DAVAO CITY – Farmers from barangays Tamugan and Gumalang recently held a protest at the office of the Aboitiz Energy Solutions in Davao Light, Bajada calling for the immediate implementation of the Davao City Watershed Code.

�We are alarmed that despite this law that hinders the hydropower project, attempts to amend it persist,� said Nemie Divinagracia, chairperson of the Tamugan Farmers Association (Tafa).

Divinagracia was referring to the controversial 30.5 megawatt Tamugan – Suawan hydropower plant set to be implemented by Hedcor-Aboitiz in Brgy. Tamugan, Marilog District. She said that, despite the silence that has veiled the project in the past months, farmers and environmental groups are convinced of the prevailing threats to the Tamugan-Panigan watershed.

The Watershed Code is an ordinance that was passed by the city government last year. It protects 16 of Davao’s conservation areas: Tamugan-Panigan Watershed areas, Tamugan-Davao River floodplains and terraces, Suawan floodplains, Mt. Makabol-Mt. Alikon Area, Malagos Watershed Area, Upper Talomo River, Subasta-Sirib, Tagakpan, Lipadas River, Tagluno Creek, Tagurano aream Kilate-Bato and Banod areas, Bayabas, Sibulan-Baracatan area and the Mt. Apo Natural Park.

According to Tafa, the Tamugan-Panigan watershed is the main water source for barangays Gumalang, Panigan, Suawan and Tamugan and is crucial for their socio-economic activities. It is the source of the irrigation of rice fields, farm lots, animal farms and households.

The environmental network Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao also underscored the dangers posed by the project.

Francis Morales, group spokesperson, cited that hydropower plants and the planned diversion of the rivers pose dangers to the eco-system, including the scouring the riverbeds, loss of riverbanks and reduction or death of fish populations because of the relatively warm water coming out of hydropower plants’ turbines.

�Hedcor proclaims itself as the producer of clean energy, hiding the negative impacts that actual construction and operation of hydropower plants bring about especially within a supposed conservation area. The experience of the Tagabawa lumads with Hedcor in Sibulan, Davao del Sur is an ugly and bitter one. They were promised with roads, royalties and taxes but they were not told about their ancestral grounds being desecrated, and hectares of their coffee and vegetable farms destroyed,� Morales cited. �We reiterate that water should primarily be for the use and control of the people, not for corporate profits�.

The Sibulan hydropower project is a 42.5 megawatt hydropower plant and with the Tamugan- Suawan project , Hedcor stands to rake in 1.8 billion pesos in incremental income yearly, with the local government getting a hefty 5.4 million pesos or 2 percent of the gross sales during the first year and 40 million pesos in property tax and 3 million pesos in business tax.

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Panalipdan spokesperson