I’m one of the few who have never been to Boracay, so I won’t know what I will be missing if President Rodrigo Duterte makes good his threat to close down for one year one of the crown jewels of Philippine tourism. But I think I have a good idea of what could happen to this island resort which Conde Nast has ranked among the most idyllic in the world, if nothing is done to arrest its degradation.
You see, I built my very first house in Parañaque back when the creek adjoining my property was clean enough for swimming and washing clothes, salt beds basked in the sun alongside cogon-lined Sukat Road, and one could wade in the clean waters of Laguna de Bay. I can also recall how the beach resorts in Parañaque were favorite destinations for school and company excursions, and how my brothers and I used to swim in Manila Bay, when one could still access it from what then was known as Dewey Boulevard.
Now the creek beside my house stinks, is dangerously toxic, and routinely delivers flood waters into the subdivision. Sukat Road is a traffic hell-hole. And Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay have become environmental disasters.
As sure as night follows day, that same dire fate will befall Boracay, as well as other treasured tourist spots in our country, unless we, as a people, take responsibility for protecting our environment and demand action from our local governments, while performing our civic duties.
While I fully appreciate the alarm bells rang by Duterte, to get the so-called Secretary of Environment, the so-called Secretary of Tourism and the so-called governor of Aklan off their fat asses, I think it is a shame that it needs the president to get these so-called responsible officials to do their jobs – duties and responsibilities that they and the local governments should automatically and routinely be attending to.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me concede that cleaning up, protecting and nurturing the environment is much easier said than done – and the best that Duterte and national and local officials can do is to slow down the degradation. Unless drastic corrective measures are taken.
The harsh fact is that environmental degradation and outright destruction is a worldwide plague. Some of the most popular tourist destinations and most advanced countries in the world are among the worst polluters.
Venice, whose canals evoke visions of romance and beauty, suffers from the kind of pollution that would make Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay seem pristine. Decades of trash, along with human waste dumped into the waters via an open-air sewage system, caused one travel writer to run the headline: “The stuff in the canals is not the stuff of romance.”
Last year, a major clean-up project was planned by Venetian authorities, to dredge sludge accumulated for over half a century and fix the sewage disposal system to minimize the foul smell.
The stink is worse during low tide. But the situation becomes more hazardous when the canals overflow and one has to negotiate the flooded streets. In times like those, it is not unusual to see makeshift gangplanks and stepping stones being set up on the sidewalks for pedestrians to walk on. Hawkers also sell makeshift “boots” to tourists (actually large pieces of plastic wrapped and tied around the legs to prevent getting wet).
It truly reminds you of Manila during the rainy season.
If you think the Philippine environmental situation is bad, consider one study that lists the most polluted cities in the world as Jodhpur, India; Tangshan, China; Kampala, Uganda; Agra, India; Bushehr, Iran; Narayangong, Bangladesh; and Hengshui, China.
Another study ranks the five most polluted cities as New Delhi, India; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Beijing, Mexico City and Ahvaz, Iran.
Note that Metro Manila is not (not yet?) in either list.
The second study lists the following cities as the least polluted: Oslo, Norway; Bern, Switzerland; Calgary, Canada; Honolulu; and Whitehorse, Canada.
Interestingly, one reason why Oslo is so clean is because of a technology that processes human waste and converts it into transportation fuel.
In Japan, it’s called Poop Power. Toyota has begun to process excrement to extract hydrogen that, in turn, is used for its hydrogen-fueled cars. Cow dung is also processed for the same purpose, causing one pundit to quip that the Philippine Congress could be a rich source of renewable energy material due to all the BS being routinely spewed.
But, levity aside, there could be a solution to the seemingly insurmountable problem of garbage that make Smokey Mountains out of our country’s cities and major municipalities.
Several European countries have been actively converting garbage into energy. Sweden is said to be leading the way, followed by the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway and Finland. According to one report, “Every day, some 300 trucks arrive at a plant outside the city of Goteborg on the west coast of Sweden. They carry garbage but they are not there to dump the cargo. Instead, they deliver it to the plant’s special ovens, which burn it, providing heat to thousands of local homes.
According to a spokesman for Renova, the energy company operating the plant, the only fuel used by the plant is trash and it provides one-third of the heat for households in the region.
Continued the report: “Across Sweden, 950,000 homes are heated by trash; this lowly resource also provides electricity for 260,000 homes across the country according to statistics from Avfall Sverige, Sweden’s national waste-management association.”
This could open up an opportunity for the Philippines (as well as for Canada, which reportedly exported tons of trash to our country and was asked to take the garbage back).
The Swedes are said to recycle 47%^ of their waste and use 52% to generate heat, leaving less than 1% for the garbage dump. The “problem” is that there has actually been a shortage of garbage to meet Sweden’s heating needs. The German, Danes, Dutch and Belgians are facing the same shortfall. Sweden is said to be importing trash from other countries – up to 800,000 tons in 2014 alone.
Maybe some entrepreneurial taipans or the Pangilinan or the Ayala conglomerates can look into this opportunity.
In sum, Duterte’s foray into environmental protection should be viewed as simply the tip off the garbage dump. Hopefully, what he and his officials threaten to do will not simply be for press release purposes.
So much more can be done, not just to solve a stinking problem but to literally convert trash into cash.
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