Boracay’s water quality improves

Citing new laboratory findings, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported that the water in the country’s premier island resort of Boracay remains safe and that its quality has, in fact, improved in the past year.

Laboratory tests on the presence of fecal coliform showed that the water in Boracay is still within the criteria set for Class SB or bodies of water intended for swimming and recreational activities.

Based on the tests, the island resort’s fecal coliform level was 4 MPN (most probable number) per 100 milliliters as of October.

This was a significant improvement from Boracay’s October 2004 fecal coliform level of 25.6 MPN/100 ml.

There are a total of 23 stations monitoring the water quality in the resort island.

"Boracay is the most monitored island in the country," said Zoilo Andin, the DENR’s head executive assistant and concurrent special action officer for Boracay. "This is because the island has the biggest volume of visitors and tourists, or the area visitor ratio."

"We do continuous monitoring and sometimes, we even conduct the monitoring twice during the peak season. We basically want to protect our jewel in the Visayas," he said.

Among the three stations of the island resort, the water in Station 2 was found to have the most number of microorganisms because of the big number of people there, the DENR said.

Station 2, according to Andin, is considered a "convergence point" since most of the hotels and establishments are found in the area.

Thus, Andin said their monitoring efforts have been largely focused on the area.