Wednesday, March 26, 2008 Osmeña: Human impact on tourist destinations By Antonio V. Osmeña Estatements
TOURISM and migration to urban areas within the Visayan archipelago has alleviated poverty in local communities.
Cebu, and Panglao Island and most of Bohol Province have become favorite tourist destinations. The human impact should be a serious concern of local government entities. When more people move to tourist destinations, freeways and mass transit systems need to be built to accommodate commuters—making it easier for more people to enjoy the trip.
But most of the roads leading to resorts in these areas are not good. There is an urgent need to impose planning and zoning in potential tourist destinations.
We are all aware that the seas near resorts can become a sink for natural and human wastes. Water used and consumed in homes, factories and farms flows into rivers, which eventually empty into the sea.
Major pollution problems in seas often occur in estuaries, wetlands, bays and harbors, and at the mouth of polluted rivers.
Rivers in Metro Cebu are heavily polluted with all kinds of wastes, which, during heavy rain, are all emptied to the sea. Although the ocean can dilute and break down large amounts of sewage and some types of industrial wastes—especially in deep-water areas—its capacity to do so has limits.
The sheer magnitude of discharges, especially near the coast, can overload the sea’s natural purifying systems. In addition, these natural processes cannot readily degrade many of the plastics, pesticides and other synthetic chemicals created by human ingenuity.
A National Coastal Zone Management Act should provide adequate national aid to all coastal islands within the country, to help them develop voluntary and comprehensive programs for protecting and managing coastlines. These programs should also ensure that the public has free and unrestricted access to shorelines and beaches, let citizens have a voice in deciding how coastal lands can be used and establish nationwide protection of large coastal areas for recreational public use, as is done in Sweden.
The programs should also encourage private foundations to buy and protect the most critical areas until they can be purchased and protected by the state.
The increasing density of inhabitants in resort areas could be a major cause of ocean pollution, unless steps are taken to implement strict planning and zoning functions and activities, which will result in desirable social and economic ends.
Land-use planning should be implemented in potential resort areas. Houses, industries and businesses in these areas should be provided with water and sewer lines, and waste treatment plants to protect pristine coastal sand from insect infestations.
To illustrate, in the early 1970s, the beach in Talisay was infiltrated with crawling insects that bit those sitting or lying on the beach. Back then animal and human waste abound on the beach and even in the water. Swimming became hazardous.
The Visayan archipelago is still a paradise because of its pristine environment. But how long will it last?
There are exciting and important indications that Filipinos are ready to move into a new phase of cultural evolution— the transition from an agricultural-industrial society based on humans against nature to a sustainable earth society, which involves humans learning to cooperate with nature rather than blindly attempting to control it. A growing number of people are beginning to see themselves as belonging to a global tribe whose cooperative efforts are necessary for the survival of everyone in an age threatened with destruction.
The human impact on the environment necessitates controlling a particular water, air or land pollutant. Thus, those who seek to sustain the earth through cooperation are merely renewing and strengthening a fundamental human trait, which has helped keep us from the long list of extinct species.
