The Lesson Hidden by Greed in Boracay ….michael a. bengwayan..

 The Lesson Hidden by Greed in Boracay

….michael a. bengwayan..

Wittingly or unwittingly,  late rather than later,  better safe than sorry, we are all learning  from the Boracay fiasco. It is happening in most beaches, cities, towns, mountains, rivers, forests, lakes and other beautiful natural sights frequented by tourists.

But rather than speak of the much ballyhooed spins in most publications like loss of income, I’d like to delve on the irreversible damage done by  human greed through tourisms on Boracay. It is paradoxical that throughout human existence we have relied on the oceans – for food, economic opportunities and recreation yet made it our waste dump, with no care in the world, without respect and reverence to other creation of God.

With almost half the Philippine population  living within 100 kilometres of the country’s  36,289 kilometer coastline, it’s not surprising that our activities are taking their toll.  But tourism has increased human activity in our coasts. Human impacts have increased along with our rapid population growth, substantial developments in technology and significant changes in land use.,  Worst, pollution is most alarming and  Boracay  is now feeling this self-inflicted pain.

The sea where Boracay shore is, has become a dumping site of sludge  and sewage from human waste and human activities commercial run-off and chemicals. Such marine pollution major threatens life in the sea at all levels.

 

Through bioaccumulation – the process where levels of toxic chemicals in organisms increase as they eat each other at each successive trophic level,  the food web is endangered.

All marine pollution has the potential to seriously damage marine habitats and life in the sea. The pollution of Boracay, kills marine life and places extra stress on organisms that are already threatened or endangered.

The worst effect is nutrient pollution iin Boracay’s bay which results to eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, ”dead zones,” fish kills,  shellfish poisonings, loss of seagrass and kelp beds,  coral reef destruction, and even some marine mammal and seabird deaths. Nutrient over-enrichment of  the coastal ecosystem triggers ecological changes that decrease the biologi- cal diversity of  BOracy’s bay and estuaries.

The marked increase in nutrient pollution of coastal waters was observed in Boracay, accompanied by an increase in harmful algal blooms..

High nutrient levels and the changes they cause in water quality and the makeup of the algal community are detrimental to the health of coral reefs and the diversity of animal life supported by seagrass and kelp communi- ties.

Eutrophication, the result of a particular type of marine pollution  being contributed by the pollution in Boracay. It is caused by the release of  nutrients in polluted water from the coasts of Boracay from restaurants, hotels, food stalls all dumping sewage in pipes leading to Boracay bay. These nutrients lead to excessive phytoplankton growth that results in ‘blooms’. When these large numbers of organisms die, the sharp increase in decomposition of the dead organisms by oxygen-using bacteria depletes oxygen levels. In most cases, this can result in the death by oxygen starvation of large numbers of other organisms such as fish.

Too much human activity due to the millions of tourists yearly  in Boracay is increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to rise dramatically in that area. This impacts on the marine environment as the sea  absorbs as much  CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere. This absorption of CO₂ causes the pH to decrease, resulting in the seawater becoming more acidic.

The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will result in higher levels of dissolved CO₂ in seawater. Even small changes in water pH can have big impacts on marine biology, causing ocean acidification as CO₂ is more soluble in colder water.

The fiasco of Boracay can have some redeeming value, if the people  of Boracay draw lessons from it and implement measures to insure that what happened there will not happen again, not just in Boracay but in all our resorts, they be along the shorelines, inland or mountainsides.

The situation in Boracay also took time to fester. Decay, after all, does not happen overnight and if acted upon with dispatch would never reach a point that assaults the senses and terrorizes the mind. Decay after decay piled on each other and created an intolerable condition. In fact, not until President Duterte intervened did the concerned government agencies and local businessmen were made to realize the state of decadence of that resort. Whoever tipped off the President did a civic duty to save the country’s vital resource.

It does not take a genius to know who is to blame and these should be made accountable under our laws. Unless they are punished, the fiasco in Boracay will be repeated elsewhere.

The government must learn too from this fiasco, primary of which is that negligence catches up in the long term. It is like a disease ignored, a cancerous cell that will eventually spread throughout the body to extract its price.

We hardly learn...

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