President Duterte’s clampdown on Boracay over its neglect to clean up its wastewater is a wake-up call for the government to get its act together not only to rally right behind this marching order to clean up Boracay, but to push for total hygiene nationwide, or be left behind as to investment and tourism opportunities.
E-coli makulay. Boracay’s sanitary problem hit the headlines when its waters were found contaminated with E-coli bacteria, which can only come from feces of animals and humans. TV footages even show a pipe, from which untreated, dirty, murky water pours out directly on the beach waters. The water spewing out is not clear, but has color (“may kulay”) in darkish gray, obviously not treated and sanitized.
Tourism Assistant Secretary Ricky Alegre declares that 82 percent of Boracay establishments are not connected to any wastewater-treatment facility. Moreover, tourist arrivals hit an average of about 64,000 a day, which is more than the island’s bedroom capacity of 40,000. This is 60 percent more than its holding capacity, and we could also imagine people pissing off in the waters.
If this problem did not gain prominence in media, it could not gain Duterte’s attention; and it won’t be long when outbreaks of skin diseases could happen. Authorities must thus take media criticisms and exposes not as opposition, but as feedback mechanisms, rightly or wrongly, that will trigger reforms for the better.
Kick ass to address problem behind? Duterte’s strongman approach of kicking asses over how we dispose our wastes from behind is a good move in the right direction, but it has also opened up the classic mythological “Pandora’s box” of a bigger problem—the lack of a “culture of hygiene” that should be a must not only to be tourist-friendly, but as a fundamental health practice and policy.
Boracay’s 2 million visitors and P56 billion in annual revenues will suffer temporary setbacks, but it could not be solved easily by simply cleaning up Boracay, or even all tourist destinations.
Targets of 7.5 million foreign tourists for 2018 will be affected if we do not invest much in water infrastructure, sewerage-treatment facilities and toilet amenities, not only in tourist spots, but in all establishments. Local government units must kick asses, too, by enshrining toilet reforms in building codes or requiring more and bigger toilets to meet rising populations. More so for women, who need more space and time, unlike men who can unload standing up against urinals.
The majority thinks building more toilets with ample water is enough. This only solves half the problem. Most toilets, including 82 percent of Boracay toilets, are mere septic tank systems that simply separate solids from liquids, with the latter finding their way to drainage and sewerage canals, aquifers and into the seas.
What are also needed are wastewater-treatment facilities, which can be set up, say, in expropriated land to service clusters of communities.
Pontius Pilate’s act reduces 55 deaths a day? Do you know that 55 Filipinos die every day because of poor toilet systems? The National Sewerage and Septage Management Program revealed this, adding that over 90 percent of sewage is not collected and treated.
We must invest more in toilet-water systems than spend time on Dengvaxia, which has not yet established causality of deaths as only 3 of 14 cases who died after receiving Dengvaxia, while the rest died for other reasons. Probe more on corruption to get the guilty jailed, and slow down on the medical probe to prevent the scare on legitimate vaccinations.
Toilet facilities have improved, but former Education Secretary Armin A. Luistro admits at the 2016 Rotary International Conference on water, sanitation and hygiene in schools (WASH) that 3,628 elementary and secondary schools still had no regular source of safe and clean water. While the national toilet-to-pupil ratio of one toilet to 39 students is tolerable, other areas have a 1 to 100 ratio.
Learning from Rotary’s WASH program, the Department of Health must launch campaigns to literally encourage “Pontius Pilate’s acts”—wash hands. Install closed-circuit television survey counters of people washing hands so you need not ask them embarrassing questions. No need to take pictures of their privacy, just compare volume influx at entrance with those washing hands. Link spread of diseases, deaths
to non-washing of hands.
Problem behind is us not ass? Huge toilet problems are traced to a bigger problem—ourselves for giving less priority to hygiene. Worst, policy-makers care less as they don’t see reality on the ground. Do you know that Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 at its Recto terminal has only one toilet, one bowl good for both men and women? And yet it services daily thousands of commuters. Even establishments like McDonalds below the LRT 2 Cubao station has only one toilet for men and women.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund reports that over 30 million Filipinos don’t have water-sanitation facilities, of which 7.8 million people are forced into open space defecation, in the bushes, rivers, and in urban-poor settings in plastic bags that are thrown with the trash.
These unhygienic practices cause diarrhea, amoebiasis, cholera and typhoid fever, etc., causing deaths, particularly among infants, and high health costs for the government.
Tourists come forth without comfort? Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon T. Teo’s target of 12 million foreign tourists and 89 million domestic tourists by 2022 cannot be done by improving only facilities in tourist spots. Most tourists stray away to explore local communities only to be disappointed by the lack of toilet facilities all over, even in the big malls of SM, which maximize block space for retailer stalls and less for aesthetics and amenities, including toilets.
I can’t understand why universal access to clean toilets is targeted only by 2028, and not now. And yet, the government is drumbeating tourism. And we must build toilet systems not solely to earn tourist dollars, but to reduce the confirmed 20,000 yearly deaths and improve the lives of everyone. Otherwise, we will be left behind again in many development indicators.
E-mail: mikealunan@yahoo.com