The famous white sand Philippine island of Boracay is drowning in feces and could have to be closed to guard the health of thousands and thousands of tourists, President Rodrigo Duterte has warned.
The fiery leader has brutally assessed the country’s biggest tourist attraction, ordering hotels, restaurants and other businesses on the small central island to scrub up or face a tourism ban there.
“I will close Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool,” Duterte said late at a business forum in his southern hometown of Davao, in keeping with an official transcript released by the Presidential Palace on Saturday.
“You go into the water, it stinks. The smell of what? S***. Everything will work out for Boracay,” he said.
Red-faced tourism department officials on Saturday confirmed Duterte’s assessment, saying it reflected worsening sewage conditions on an island known world wide for its pristine white sand and crystal-clear water.
“It is a shame that Boracay, repeatedly voted the most beautiful island in the world by prestigious travel magazines, may turn out to be a lost paradise if the water continues to be contaminated,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said in an announcement.
Department spokesman Ricky Alegre said many plants discharge wastewater directly into the ocean.
“There are some areas there…some utilities are illegally connecting sewage to the water supply,” Alegre said.
Of the 150 businesses in Boracay that the federal government recently inspected, only 25 were connected to the sewage system, he added.
Alegre added that many facilities were built too near the beach and crowded even the roads of the 1,000-hectare island.
Boracay attracts greater than 2 million tourists a yr and brings in 56 billion pesos ($1.12 billion) in annual revenue, department and industry sources say.
Duterte warned that the situation constitutes a looming “disaster” and ecological “tragedy” that might soon drive tourists off the island, positioned about 190 km (308 miles) south of Manila.
He said he ordered Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to scrub up Boracay or something else.
“I’ll give you six months. Clean the damn thing,” he said, Cimatu said.
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: clean up Boracay or face a tourism ban, Duterte warns
