Arroyo to inaugurate Boracay sewerage system

The long wait is over.

Five years of living in fear of another coliform scare striking Boracay ends today when President Arroyo inaugurates the island’s state-of-the-art sanitation and sewerage system.

In a statement, Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) general manager Nixon Kua said the sanitation and sewerage system project was undertaken with the help of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation through the 19th Yen Package.

The entire loan package funding the Boracay Environmental Infrastructure Project (BEIP) amounts to P600 million. Under the BEIP, the PTA has also completed the water supply system for Boracay and is set to finish the island’s solid waste disposal system within the year.

"We are confident that the sanitation and sewerage system under the BEIP will help in further bolstering Boracay’s image as one of the best tropical beaches in the world and the country’s position as an attractive tourist destination in Asia. This is also the tourism industry’s contribution to efforts to protect our environment," Kua said.

President Arroyo, together with Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon and Kua, will fly to Kalibo, Aklan today to inaugurate the project.

Kua noted that increased tourist arrivals in the past years have spawned haphazard development in Boracay which, in turn, has adversely affected the island’s ecosystem.

Establishments such as lodging and resort facilities and restaurants, bars and discos have been put up without considering the availability of specific resources like water and the island’s natural capacity to carry generated waste.