Dated September 18 and signed by Secretary Roy Cimatu, the Memorandum Order provided the guidelines on the installation or construction of individual Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) per establishment in Boracay and at the same time ordered the concessionaires to collect and treat the wastewater of their own respective clients.
It also ordered Concessionaires to issue certifications that their respective customers are either connected to the sewer line or have their own compliant individuals STPs. The said certification will serve as a requirement for the hotel or establishment to operate come opening date on the 26th of October 2018.
As part of this directive, the Concessionaires are asked to provide DENR with data on water billed volume and volume of wastewater received for treatment for monitoring and planning purposes.
The Memorandum also requested all hotels having their own individuals STPs to discharge their treated effluents through the sewer lines and treated water lines of their water providers for eventual proper disposal. In relation to this, Boracay Water has a total 21 kilometers of sewer network available on the island, and have two sewage treatment facilities that can treat up to 11.5 million liters of wastewater or used water from establishments prior to disposal.
The latest DENR Order strictly stated that hotels that are unable to comply will not be allowed to open and operate their business until they have established their own compliant STPs.
It can be recalled that Boracay Water started its aggressive campaign to encourage connection to the company’s sewer network in March of this year. To date, about 120 establishments and residences have signified their intention to be connected to the company’s sewer system.
With the recent directive of DENR, the company is expecting to receive more applications for sewer connection even from non-Boracay Water customers. This will allow more commercial and residential establishments to discharge their used water into a reliable sewer system and ensure that it will be properly processed to comply with existing effluent standards of DENR.
Currently, more than 1,200 establishments and residences are directly connected to Boracay Water’s sewer network. For unsewered areas or areas with no existing sewer network, regular desludging or siphoning services are being done through the company’s desludging trucks which collect wastewater for treatment in the two sewage treatment plants of the Boracay Water located in barangays Manocmanoc and Balabag.
