Amazing Blue River of Balabac Island Philipiines

Amazing Blue River of Balabac Island Philipiines. There a lot of rivers in the Philippines but this river is one of the amazing and astounding of the Philippines. Why? But first let’s put this in a question (?) Have you ever seen a stream with blue waters? Yes! There’s a Blue river which is located somewhere in the remote island of Palawan in western Philippines and partly belong to the island of Balabac. I did when I had a field trip with my students in one of the remote islands of Palawan in western Philippines. It’s some kind of magical. The sea is sometimes rough especially during the rainy season so the trips are irregular.

There’s a group of people which they examine water bodies for living organisms. For rivers or streams, the groups should turn over the rocks and explore the crevices of the riparian zone as well as the edge of rivers or streams. The groups did so, but to their dismay, they have seen no life in the stream with blue waters. Questions arose whether the stream with blue waters is a natural phenomena. There is a need for the groups to go further upstream to find out what caused the blue coloration. It’s as if somebody is washing some clothes using some kind of detergent that made the waters of the stream blue.

They walked a few hundred meters more upstream and we were taken aback at what we saw. From whence the river flow came is a topped over hill. The local residents told us the place was a former copper mine site.Residues of cupric sulphate on the ground caused the blue coloration of the stream.

When the rains come, the cupric sulphate residues on the ground are carried off to the nearby stream, causing the waters to turn bluish. The former mine site was not rehabilitated the reason why the stream has blue waters. It’s an environment degraded due to strip mining.