BEACH WATER QUALITY AND TOURISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 001977 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR OES/PCI/ACOVINGTON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV TBIO EIND EAID SUBJECT: BEACH WATER QUALITY AND TOURISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA BANGKOK 00001977 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. Summary: The University of California and the Universiti Sains Malaysia organized a workshop March 27-29 in Penang, Malaysia, to examine beach water quality and tourism in Southeast Asia. The conference concluded that monitoring and disseminating information on local beach water quality is essential for public health. It further determined that the benefits of increased tourism revenues to national and local governments and private businesses would outweigh the costs associated with improving beach water quality and developing a more sustainable beach tourism sector. End summary. Pollution in Paradise -------------- ¶2. Southeast Asia is home to some of the world's best-known beach and island resorts, which have helped make tourism the region's fastest growing industry. Coastal water quality is emerging as an important determinant of the industry's future growth. Sewage, industrial and agricultural effluents, domestic wastewater, and wastes from urban surface runoff have degraded water quality throughout the region. At the same time, international tourists have become more aware of the potential health risks they face when vacationing at beaches and are increasingly factoring in beach water quality when choosing their destinations. ¶3. The most important pollution sources contaminating beach water in Southeast Asia are sewage discharged directly or via leaking pipes and septic tanks, untreated domestic and industrial wastewater, agricultural and urban surface runoff, and refuse from the beachgoers themselves. Bacteria and viruses, heavy metals, and pesticides are the pollutants with public health implications w! in biologically polluted waters pose an additional hazard to swimmers. ¶4. Direct testing for viruses and certain other pollutants is too expensive to be conducted routinely by municipal government laboratories. Instead, these laboratories generally test for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD - an indicator of overall biological contamination) and coliform bacteria (microbes that indicate the amount of fecal contamination). Much discussion at the conference was devoted to the appropriateness of these commonly used indicators. Coliform bacteria, for example, used as a measure of human sewage contamination, may also originate from animal and soil sources. Monitoring Water Quality and Informing the Public -------------- -------------- ¶5. University of California presenters said that concerns about coastal pollution in the U.S. have prompted state agencies, tourism associations, and non-government organizations to launch programs that inform beach users about water quality. They said that essential to any program to provide beach water quality information to the public are 1) a system to detect, measure, and monitor the levels of contamination, and 2) a system of public notifications, advisories, and warnings, based on accepted international standards. ¶6. They explained two such programs in use in California - the Blue Flag Program, a certification that takes into account water quality, environmental management, and safety and services, and the Beach Report Card, which assigns A-F grades for beach water quality based on monitoring fecal bacteria levels. Participants from Hong Kong outlined its monitoring and beach grading system, which grades individual beaches good, fair, poor, or very poor and provides information to the public via Internet and text messaging. Measuring Costs -------------- ¶7. University of California participants faced challenges in relating their studies on California beach water quality and tourism to the experience of Southeast Asia. For example, since most beach tourists in California are American citizens and often are residents of nearby communities, the human health costs to the community of poor quality beach water are relatively direct; in Southeast Asia, where foreign tourists generally rule the beaches, human health costs are more indirect, reflected in lost revenue as tourists choose other destinations. Participants -------------- ¶8. The workshop was organized by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation of the University of California and the Centre for International Studies of the Universiti Sains Malaysia in cooperation with the World Bank. The Regional Environmental Officer (REO) for Southeast Asia participated, along with environmental and tourism officials from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, India, Cambodia, Philippines, and Vietnam. In addition, several scientists and academics from Malaysia attended, and Vietnam sent municipal administrators from Danang and Nha Trang. BANGKOK 00001977 002.2 OF 002 Conclusion -------------- ¶9. The conference concluded that improved access to sanitation services, especially by households in coastal communities, improved and well-maintained sewage and septic systems, and better handling of surface runoff are specific measures that should be undertaken to improve beach water quality. As the principle beneficiaries or tourism revenue, municipalities and private businesses in the beach tourism sector have a responsibility to invest in reducing coastal pollution, thus ensuring a continued inflow of tourists and synergy between tourism revenue and environmentally sustainable coastal development. ARVIZU