Cleaner, greener Boracay open for business

THE PHILIPPINES reopened its top holiday island yesterday and promised sustainable tourism and a greener environment, welcoming back visitors after a six-month clean-up ordered by a president who had described it a “cesspool”.

Hundreds of excited local and foreign tourists, barred from Boracay since April, trooped to a jetty serving as the main gateway to the 10km2 island, which is famed for its sugary white sands, turquoise waters, lively nightlife and abundant water sports.

“We have done the first phase, this is the rehabilitation. There is no more cesspool,” Environment Minister Roy Cimatu said.

In April, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Boracay’s closure after seeing a video of dirty water being piped out to sea, one of the side-effects of decades of unregulated construction that caused the collapse of its tiny sewerage system.

Boracay attracted two million visitors last year and raked in $1 billion in revenue but was under environmental stress, with garbage pile-ups, rampant land encroachment, and narrow roads filled with fumes from clogged traffic.

The island is turning over a new leaf. Beach parties, smoking and drinking are banned. Along the shoreline, there will be no more vendors, masseuses, fire dancers or watersports.

Only 19 000 tourists will be be allowed on the island daily.

The government plans to extend its restoration beyond Boracay to other tourist spots on the archipelago of more than 7 000 islands, Climatu said.

Before the closure, authorities found about a third of the 700 or so resorts on Boracay were operating without permits. Some 150 hotels were allowed to operate from yesterday.

During the closure, authorities removed illegal sewage pipes, closed or demolished unregistered hotels and widened roads.

| JO HARESH TANODRA/ EPA-EFE A view of a beach on the island of Boracay, Philippines. The island has reopened after it was closed to the public following a six-month clean-up operation.