Local communities and supporting organizations march. to protest against the Kaliwa dam. Credit: Stop Kaliwa Dam coalition, via Instagram
In the lush mountains of the Sierra Madre, in the Philippine island of Luzon, the Dumagat Remontado Indigenous communities have been leading a fierce resistance against a proposed dam that threatens their way of life. The Kaliwa dam risks flooding their homes and sacred sites, destroying their precious ecosystem, and exacerbating the impacts of climate change: but instead of listening to these concerns, the project proponents have tried to silence critical voices.
The Kaliwa dam is being presented as a magical solution to address water shortages in Manila. Despite there being plenty of viable, alternative water supply solutions that would not have such a destructive impact, the Philippine government has been pushing forward this dam and secured a US$ 211 million loan from the Exim Bank of China to build it.
Managed by Manila’s Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), the dam is one the flagship projects of the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program, initiated by the former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Build, build, build is a mantra obsessively repeated by governments worldwide, but little attention is being paid to a key question: who are these projects being built for? And which benefits are they actually bringing?
The Philippines is one of the countries most at risk from the climate crisis, according to the United Nations. The situation in Manila, already heavily affected by water shortages, is expected to get worse in the coming years because of the rising ocean temperatures that will affect the phenomenon of El Niño and increase the risks of severe droughts and extreme weather events.
The proponents of the Kaliwa dam are claiming that the project will bring enough water to the capital and prevent water shortages. However, scientific experts are warning that the dam will actually contribute to climate change, increase the risk of droughts, and destroy an ecosystem that is crucial for the entire archipelago.
According to an article by the online media Rappler, it is “expected that the dam’s reservoir that will be created as part of the dam’s operations will submerge 93 hectares of forestland”. With the construction of associated roads and other infrastructure, thousands of hectares of forests in the area will be affected. The Sierra Madre mountain range, already affected by high levels of deforestation in the past, will be even more prone to the impacts of climate disasters and landslides. The dam will also endanger the precious biodiversity of these mountains and particularly the area of the Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve, which is recognized as a wildlife sanctuary with hundreds of endemic flora and fauna species.
Local indigenous communities have been powerfully and courageously raising their voice to protect their territory. Using a wide array of tactics (from court cases to protest marches and advocacy letters) and with the support of a wide alliance of people’s organizations, NGOs and environmental campaigners, they have been relentlessly calling on the authorities and the financiers to stop the project before it is too late.
“President Marcos’ administration has now an opportunity to seriously re-evaluate the China Exim Bank-funded Kaliwa Dam Project, given the u-turn in the diplomatic relationships with China because of the tensions in the South China sea, where Chinese vessels are harassing and targeting Philippine ships,” says Rovik Obanil from the Freedom from Debt Coalition, one of the groups involved in the campaign to support the struggle to stop the Kaliwa dam. “The government should also consider the country’s surging debt. For the sake of the environment and the people who will be affected, we hope the opportunity to halt the project will not be wasted.”
In 2009, local communities had already successfully fought against the massive Laiban hydroelectric project, which was threatening to displace thousands of people and destroy the local ecosystem. But shortly after winning that battle, they had to face again the threat of another dam in their territory, smaller in scale but equally destructive.
Construction works for the Kaliwa dam began in 2022, and in March 2024 the authorities announced that 30 % of the works have been completed. But although the dam is not operational yet, it has already caused immense harm to local communities.
One of the key concerns raised by the local Dumagat Remontado Indigenous communities is that, despite there is a Philippine law requiring that such projects ensure the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous communities, no genuine or meaningful consultations were conducted. Local communities were not informed about the real impacts, they did not receive documents in their local language, and were tricked into signing misleading consent forms.”
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), a national institution set up to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Philippines, has been accused of irregularities in the process of obtaining the consent, and of only consulting with those who were supporting the project.
Moreover, consultations cannot be considered “meaningful” in a context where critical voices are routinely silenced (see more in the report “Wearing Blinders”). Since the project was proposed, local human rights defenders and community members voicing their opposition have been threatened, red-tagged, harassed, physically targeted, and even killed. Former Philippine President Duterte himself warned he would use “extraordinary powers’’ to push the project through.
These threats are particularly concerning, as the Philippines have repeatedly been ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for human rights defenders and particularly for those working on environmental issues. In a recent case, environmental activists and youth leaders Francisco “Eco” Dangla III and Axielle “Jak” Tiong were abducted and released three days later, as a retaliation for their powerful work speaking out against destructive projects and protecting the rights of local communities. Their abduction is the latest case of a worrying trend: there have been 21 other cases of enforced disappearances under the 21-month administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In the context of the Kaliwa dam, reprisals have had a chilling effect: many people are now afraid to speak out against the project or to publicly denounce the attacks they have suffered. But many, despite the risks, are continuing to speak out. These voices keep rising against all odds. They are the voices of the Indigenous communities who know their territory and how to protect an endangered ecosystem. They are the voices of those who know how a truly sustainable development model could look like. They are the voices that carry with them the wisdom of all the past generations and know what’s best for the future ones. They are the voices that the government and the financiers behind the Kaliwa dam should listen to.
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