{"id":2956,"date":"2011-04-28T05:52:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T05:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/?p=2956"},"modified":"2011-04-28T05:52:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T05:52:55","slug":"mining-related-landslides-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/2011\/04\/28\/mining-related-landslides-in-the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining-related landslides in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key human cause of landslides around the world is mining.\u00a0 This problem is exacerbated in areas in which mining activities are uncontrolled and unregulated, a particular issue in many less developed countries.\u00a0 In recent months there has been a spate of mining-related accidents in Mindanao in the Philippines.\u00a0 Many such landslides probably go unreported, but for 2011 my database includes the following events:<\/p>\n

11\/03\/2011\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pantukan town, Campostella Valley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 fatality \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 5 injuries
\n30\/03\/2011\u00a0\u00a0 T’boli town , South Cotabato province, Mindanao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 3 fatalities \u00a0 2 injuries
\n02\/04\/2011\u00a0\u00a0 Tampakan area, Mindanao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4 fatalities \u00a0 2 injuries
\n22\/04\/2011\u00a0\u00a0 Kingking villag, Pantukan, Mindanao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 24 fatalities\u00a0 13 injuries<\/p>\n

The root cause of the problem is that this area has extensive small-scale and unregulated gold mines.\u00a0 Whilst the rewards are potentially large, the risks associated with mining gold in a deeply weathered landscape that is prone to both earthquakes and intense rainfall are clear.\u00a0 In addition, the miners (which include children) tend to live on the hillsides close to the mine workings.\u00a0 There is a very evocative gallery of images of such a gold mining community in this area at the following location: http:\/\/www.photoblog.com\/undergroundpix\/2008\/07\/23\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As you will see from the above, the most recent landslide occurred in a mining camp in Pantukan last Friday, killing 24 people living on the hillside.\u00a0 This image, included in this news report<\/a>, shows the landslide and the adjacent hillsides:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a good gallery of images of the landslide here <\/a>as well.<\/p>\n

As the image above and the gallery illustrate, recovering the victims of this landslide in such a landscape is exceptionally challenging, with news reports suggesting<\/a> that houseflies are providing a key tool to identify the location of the bodies, whilst the anguish of being the parent of men killed, missing and injured in the landslide is well-described in this report<\/a>.\u00a0 Of course the longer term problem is how to reduce the very high losses that these landslides are inflicting.\u00a0 This is driving a wave of concern in the Philippines about these mining activities.\u00a0 At the moment there appears to be two responses: First, there are attempts to relocate people<\/a> living on the most dangerous slopes.\u00a0 This is currently concentrated mainly on the existing landslide site, although attempts may be made<\/a> to extend this into other areas.\u00a0 Second, a temporary suspension has been placed on small-scale mining activities in this area, but enforcing this ban is of course very difficult<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bottom line here is similar to the one that we recently highlighted through our NERC-ESRC project in rural Nepal<\/a>.\u00a0 This is that the population is exposed to a wide range of risks, of which the day-to-day perils of food security, access to clean water, availability of health care, access to education, and a stable income dominate.\u00a0 These people choose to put themselves at greater risk from mining-related and landslide accidents in order to mitigate those daily threats.\u00a0 This is an entirely rational response.\u00a0 So, reducing mining-related landslides requires a coordinated approach that also addresses these everyday threats.\u00a0 The danger is that in unilaterally closing the mines and relocating the population, their everyday risks will increase, with outcomes that are even more detrimental than the landslides.\u00a0 If ever there is a need for joined-up thinking it is here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A discussion about mining-related landslides in Mindanao in the Philippines, including a discussion of the difficulties of reducing the losses associated with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":2958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469,959,205,252],"class_list":["post-2956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-featured","tag-landslide-report","tag-mining","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.agu.org\/landslideblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}