RAMIREZ
The presence of informal settlers in the coastal areas of Lapu-Lapu City is inarguably one big concern that the local government unit (LGU) should address but it is also unfair that they would be the first to go following the findings of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) that the sea water off the area is contaminated with fecal coliform.
Demolishing the houses occupied by more than 1,000 families would not solve the problem of water contamination in the area because they are not the only one dumping untreated wastewater directly into the sea.
The threat to demolish is a predictable response by the LGU who also wanted to save its face for not seriously considering a long-term and more effective solution to prevent the contamination of its seawater following the order by President Rodrigo Duterte to shut down Boracay Island for commercial activity for six months.
The illegal settlers will have to go because they are not supposed to be there anyway but not for the reason that they contaminated the sea because the pollution is collectively caused by all the residents in the island whose household drainage network end in the sea.
We could not even guarantee that the resorts located in the island are not doing what their counterparts in Boracay Island did, making the seawater surrounding the country’s premier tourist destination as a virtual cesspool based on President Duterte’s public pronouncement.
The LGU of Lapu-Lapu City might have forgotten that they don’t have a working sewerage system and that they are practically allowing all the residents in the island to drain all the wastewater into the sea.
Although some resorts, hotels, and factories have set up their own water treatment facilities nobody really knows if they are also religiously treating their wastewater before dumping it to the sea since its operation also has a cost for them.
Although, it is not only Lapu-Lapu City that does not have a treatment facility for household wastewater they should be more discerning than the rest because one of their precious assets is its white sand beaches that generated revenue from tourism and recreation.
Another source of water contamination that the city officials must also look into is the prevalence of bottomless septic tanks among residents in the city.
The threat to demolish the structures owned by informal settlers in the coastal area of the city appears to me like a show of compliance to cover for their failure, first for the letdown to prevent informal settlers from mushrooming in the waterfront areas and secondly for not establishing a treatment facility for wastewater.
In this case, a knee-jerk reaction to the findings of the EMB that fecal coliform concentration in water samples is below the standard set by law is better than having to justify their dismal performance but nonetheless verges in absurdity.
The LGU might have found a convenient reason to carry out the demolition of houses in Barangay Poblacion, Pajo, Pusok, Ibo and Mactan but it would not solve the problem on the recent findings of high fecal coliform contamination.
The threat to demolish the haven of informal settlers is a testament that the Lapu-Lapu City government fell short in managing the influx of people to the island brought about by its rapid industrialization.