Tap cards, access bracelets eyed for Boracay visitors

MANILA, Philippines — Tourists may be required to avail themselves of tap cards or access bracelets as a security measure to regulate the number of visitors in Boracay during its scheduled reopening next month, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) announced yesterday.

The Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force is expected to approve the measure before the island reopens on Oct. 26. 

A dry run and partial opening of Boracay is set from Oct. 16 to 25.

“The dry run will allow us to assess what else needs to be done before the island is reopened to tourists,” Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu earlier said.

According to the DENR, the tap card will be available at the Caticlan Jetty Port for P25 to P30 as a deposit to enter the island.

The card may also serve as an alternative payment scheme to buy food or pay for services on the island.

The DENR said an initial 6,405 tourists would be allowed to enter Boracay daily.

The government shut down Boracay island for six months for rehabilitation.

Boracay water connections

The Boracay unit of Ayala-led Manila Water Co. Inc. is ready to accept sewer connections following order from the DENR directing establishments to connect to the island’s concessionaires.

Boracay Island Water Co. Inc. said it expects more applications for sewer connection even from non-Boracay water customers.

“This will allow more commercial and residential establishments to discharge their used water into a reliable sewer system and ensure that it will be properly processed to comply with existing sewage standards of the DENR,” Boracay Water said.

More than 1,200 establishments and residences are directly connected to Boracay Water’s sewer network.

For unsewered areas, regular desludging and siphoning services are being done through the company’s desludging trucks, which collect wastewater for treatment in the two sewage treatment plants of the Boracay Water located in Barangays Manocmanoc and Balabag.

The DENR has provided the guidelines on the installation or construction of individual sewage treatment plants (STPs) per establishment in Boracay and at the same time ordered the concessionaires to collect and treat the wastewater of their clients.

It also ordered concessionaires to issue certifications that their respective customers are either connected to the sewer line or have their own compliant STPs.

The certification serves as a requirement for establishments to operate starting Oct. 26.

Boracay Water has a total of 21 kilometers of sewer network available on the island and two sewage treatment facilities that can treat up to 11.5 million liters of wastewater from establishments prior to disposal.

Around 120 establishments and residences have signified their intention to be connected to the company’s sewer system.   –  With Louise Maureen Simeon