El Nido in the Philippines was once a small fishing town, but promotion on social media over the last decade led to a dramatic influx of tourists. Tourism has helped the local economy, but also resulted in coastal water contamination, Mongabay’s Keith Anthony Fabro reports.
Home to 50,000 residents, El Nido welcomed 10 times that number of visitors in 2023 — and its sewage system wasn’t prepared to handle so many people. Government data show that the sea around El Nido has high fecal coliform levels, exceeding the safe recreational swimming limit between 2019 and 2023, Fabro reports, citing data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Unlike the town center, nearby islands visited by day tourists for water activities like scuba diving don’t have contaminated water and meet water quality standards.
In an effort to rehabilitate the waters surrounding El Nido, tourist establishments were removed along the 3-meter (10-foot) coastal easement zone. Officials also set a limit on daily visitors.
Construction of El Nido’s first sewage and solid waste treatment plant began during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, despite those actions, fecal coliform levels still persistently exceed the safe limit, Fabro reports. Just 30 out of 900 households in El Nido’s four major villages are connected to the sewage system, despite the low monthly rate of 298 pesos ($5) per house.
Registered hotels and restaurants are required to be connected to the system, but residences are not. This is a problem, according to John Gil Ynzon, head of the water office, who told Mongabay that many households actually operate unlicensed tourism-related businesses, such as bed and breakfasts and stores.
“This lack of regulatory leverage led us to decide to subsidize the replacement of residential toilets, lavatories and septic tanks, with the government covering all costs,” Ynzon told Fabro.
In November 2024, the local government allocated 40 million pesos ($685,000) for solid waste improvement for 100 households in areas considered major contamination contributors.
Ynzon said the sewage plant has additional capacity, and they plan to extend the pipeline network to reach areas with emerging tourism development later.
The government’s goal is to connect every household in the next two to three years, but its ability to do that is limited by funding. As of January 2025, 82% of businesses are connected to the sewage system.
Political ecology professor Wolfram Dressler from the University of Melbourne, Australia, who co-authored a study about coastal change in El Nido, said the Philippine government will have to “put the brakes on rapid over-tourism development” and instead improve waste management strategies by enforcing zoning and limits on the height of buildings.
Banner image of El Nido in Palawan, Philippines, by Eibner Saliba via Unsplash (Public domain).
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