Panglao is facing a serious water crisis

Panglao is facing a serious water crisis which necessity to be contained earliest takes the urgency of a rescue from peril.

Saltwater intrusion into the island-town's groundwater sources is hastened by the water demand of the bloating population and commerce fast-grown by tourism.

Only the water from two of the municipality's nine pumping stations is potable, according to Municipal Waterworks System (MWS) supervisor Engr. Florencio Bolabon.

He boldly projected the water demand to double five years from now.

A pumping station in barangay Bolod has been condemned because of the already intolerable water salination.

The BWUI has eyed, too, the Loboc river surface water for long-term supply.

The water firm supports Bohol's vision of tempting the most number of investments possible which can assume reality once the potential water sources are developed.

The provincial government is encouraging the development, for example, of the Ujan spring in Cortes with a daily capacity of 3,500 cubic meters.

Both the Cortes and Loboc projects are in the drawing board of the BWUI to meet future water needs for domestic and industrial uses.

The lack of potable water in Panglao is a grave concern.

Datas as of June in 2007 indicate that Panglao has 3,360 consumers with a total consumption of 56,921 cubic meters every month or 1,900 cubic meters daily.

A separate table shows that 49 Panglao resorts and tourism-related establishments consume over 34,800 cubic meters of water each month.

Commercial water tanks deliver the essential commodity to resorts and other establishments.

Tourist arrivals in Bohol have been forecast to reach over 1.3 million in 2010, 1.7 million in 2010 and 2.5 million in 2005.

Highest water demands in Bohol can be experienced in Panglao, Tagbilaranm City, Loon, Talibon, Loon, Tubigon and Ubay in the years to come.

Investments in Panglao and other Metro Tagbilaran areas will most likely flourish once the Panglao Bohol international airport project is materialized and finally operational.

The over P4 billion project is set for launching by no less than Pres. Gloria Macpagal-Arroyo with Gov. Erico Aumentado, Congress' tourism committee chair Rep. Edgar Chatto and other Bohol leaders this coming May.

Agro-industrrialization, a water-requiring development mode, is also pushed for Panglao.

Chatto, also the senior vice chair of the agriculture committee, has advocated an agriculture that complements tourism, vice versa.

With abundant water supply, Panglao progress can be modified by more investments in place.

Chatto has filed a bill declaring, as a national policy, tourism to be an economic sparkplug.

Investors agree on urgently addressing Panglao's water concern since the local government unit's own water utility has long been blatantly unreliable.

There are parts in the town's 10 barangays where the supply from the local waterworks system cannot reach.

The daily 1,800 cubic meters of water consumed in the entire service area of the LGU utility is far below the actual demand since the LGU-run utility can only provide that much.

The same water requirement is easily consumed by the resorts and related establishments alone which buy water from highly-commercialized providers.

Panglao is land, which is actually comprised by the towns of Panglao and Dauis, has 54 acommodation facilities offering 514 high-end and 586 economy rooms, Bohol Tourism Office datas tell.

BTO records also show that tourist arrivals in Bohol have zoomed tremendously high in the last five years from barely over 95,000 in 2003 to over 531,000 in 2007.

These exclude the arrivals through Tubigon, Jagna and Ubay ports.

That sufficient quality water must be provided to Panglao without long wait can as well be explained by the forecast unprecedented influx of tourists after the visit here of the delegates to the International Tourism Forum for Parliamentarians and Local Authorities.

The global event to be hosted by Cebu as the main venue and Bohol as a site of the delegates' technical visit in October is initiated by the United Nations -World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).