EDITORIAL - “Floaters” and floating cottages

Floating cottages for tourists have been ordered to stop operating in Cordova Town ahead of the planned cleanup of the town’s seawaters after authorities found high concentrations of fecal coliform.

It can be recalled that the floating cottages became controversial after many of them were found to be operating without a permit, parked in a restricted area, as well as not having any proper toilet facilities.

You can probably imagine where the human waste from these cottages goes. “Floaters” among the floating cottages is not exactly what tourists want to see and probably the reason for the high fecal coliform concentrations.

Again this seems to be a case of us not knowing how to take care --or just not caring enough to take care-- of our tourist attractions.

We only have to look at what happened in Boracay Island to see what abusing the environment or not taking action can do. Remember that the Philippines’ main tourist draw had to be closed from April to October in 2018 also because of high fecal coliform levels. Tourism in that island was disrupted and many people lost their livelihood.

Of course, this is not something that we want to happen here or anywhere else in the Philippines where people depend on tourism for a livelihood.

We must not forget that our tourist attractions, especially those rooted in nature like the seas, rivers, lakes, beaches, waterfalls, and mountains, among others, are part of a natural ecosystem that we have to take care of. While it is true that nature does have its own unique way of healing the environment, if we abuse nature faster than it can heal itself we have to expect an imbalance at some point in the future.

Like what happened in Boracay let this development be a cautionary tale. If we take care of our tourist attractions they will thrive, if we don’t then there will be a price to pay in terms of lost livelihood and a ruined ecosystem.