Environment chief orders water firm to rehabilitate treatment plants in Boracay
THE DEPARTMENT of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) ordered the Boracay Island Water Corp. (BIWC) to repair and a rehabilitate a part of its wastewater treatment plants ( WTP) after it was discovered that 195 establishments were not connected to its system.
In a statement released over the weekend, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said he directed BIWC, a joint venture of the Manila Water Company, Inc. and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, to repair its WTPs in barangays Manoc-Manoc and Balabag.
The Balabag WTP was discovered to have exceeded capacity and caused wastewater leakage in some areas.
According to the DENR, only 383 out of 578 establishments it inspected are connected to a proper wastewater treatment facility.
The DENR’s National Task Force also discovered water pollution came from around a hundred informal settlers living in five out of nine wetlands on the island.
DENR chief of staff Rodolfo C. Garcia in a separate event said these informal settlers are employed by various resorts in Boracay.
“We continue to track down the discharges of waste that may be polluting the waters that many of our tourists enjoy in going to Boracay to spend their vacation,” he added.
“We want to keep Boracay in its pristine condition so whatever it takes to clean Boracay and restore it to as near is its original state, we are going to do it.”
The DENR will be prosecuting the parties that have encroached on the wetlands, which serve as one of the most productive ecosystems and maintain environmental stability in the surrounding areas.
“[The wetlands] need to be restored because they act as catchment during the rainy days and they prevent flooding [so] we have advised them (informal settlers) to self-demolish. We will reclaim all nine wetlands ” Mr. Cimatu said on Friday during the public hearing.
So far, the DENR has issued notices of violation to 207 establishments on the island that were found to have illegally dumped untreated waste water, and built too close to the shorelines or forested areas. —