Major surface water quality issues in the Basin are due to pollution from: (1) industry including minor mining, palm and coco oil processing and wood-based industries; (2) poor management of domestic wastewater and solid waste; and (3) agri-chemical use. Also of concern is sedimentation attributed mainly to riverbank erosion.
The rise of A&D lands at the expense of forest lands is observable in the MRB based on the results of ocular field survey and the reported rapid cutting of natural rain forest in the area as early as the 1960s, when rapid removal of natural forest cover was spurred by the logging boom. The degradation of forests in the MRB still continues though in several agricultural and land use conversion practices that include “kaingin” (slash-and-burn) farming systems, conversions of agricultural and idle land to palm oil and banana plantations, and the removal of mangroves for aquaculture activities.
The Marshes namely Ligawasan, Epanan and Libungan are the most ecologically sensitive area in the Basin and requires utmost attention. The marshland/wetland area has some major habitat types with very unique types of flood-tolerant vegetation communities, including mossy and peat forests. Its most productive fish habitats are perennial water bodies that support indigenous and introduced fish species.
Crucial environmental issues in the Basin with severe social implications are: (1) resource use conflicts over land, mineral, forest and fishery resources; (2) worsening of domestic water supply and sanitation conditions; (3) morbidity and mortality incidence due to water-borne and water-related diseases; and (4) environmental risks and hazards associated with local rainfall and flooding, erosion and sedimentation, seismic risk, pollution risk and social instability/conflict.
With the complexity and interplay of various elements in the environmental setting, focus is necessary on priority development initiatives, the identification of which would have to be demand-based or responsive to the needs of those directly affected, the stakeholders themselves. It is for such purposes that principal environmental issues and stakeholder priorities have been further defined out of first-hand dialogue and consultations with stakeholders.
Impact of these environmental issues that stood out as common priorities across the Basin are flooding, inadequate potable water supply, water pollution, upland degradation, poor waste management, erosion and sedimentation, loss of bio-diversity, dwindling fisheries resource and poverty including inadequate livelihood opportunities.
These priorities were further evaluated using technical criteria, from which six (6) most significant environmental issues in the Basin were identified; namely, (1) surface water quality; (2) water quantity; (3) ecological health of the Marshes; (4) upland degradation; (5) decline in fisheries resources; and (6) high incidence of waterborne and water-related diseases.
On the view of the watershed management, the top concerns mentioned are (1) timber poaching, (2) lack of livelihood options, (3) flooding, and (4) soil erosion. These concerns interestingly demonstrate pressures not only on water resources of the MRB but also on essential forest and land ecosystems intricately linked to it. One should understand though that as far as watershed management is concerned, pressures on forest, land, and water ecosystems have social and institutional dimensions. These are mainly the: (1) the debilitating or attenuating nature of poverty; (2) insecurity in tenurial instruments that generally leads to disruptive resource use; and the (3) weakening capacity for environmental governance in some Basin institutions due to the lack of logistics, funding, support services and organizational capability to exercise such functions.
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