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Human waste litter Saipan’s beaches
BECQ says tour guides should educate tourists not to defecate on pristine beaches
The Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality has recently discovered that tourists have been leaving an excessive trail of feces on the shores of pristine island beaches and in popular tourists sites on Saipan.
BECQ administrator Frank Rabauliman told Saipan Tribune yesterday that the excessive amount of human waste were found when his staff was sent out to the beaches to acquire water samples. To their dismay, they discovered that within the caves and scattered along the beach shore, excessive human waste were found.
Rabauliman is certain that the waste found on the beaches belong to tourists because beaches like Saipan’s Hidden Beach and Jeffrey’s Beach are most visited by tourists. Local islanders may visit the sites but not as often as tourists.
Rabauliman was enraged by the discovery and decided that someone should be held responsible for the maintenance of popular tourist sites.
According to Rabauliman, for the past week he has been working closely with the Marianas Visitors Authority, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Division of Parks and Recreation to enforce the tour guide certification. Rabauliman said that this is their first step into resolving the issue.
Rabauliman said that the reason for the implementation of the tour guide certification is so that tour guides will take responsibility for the tourists that they take around the island.
Rabauliman said that before cleaning up the waste, he wants to get the certification process done and have it be made a requirement because individuals that should be the most affected by the contamination of pristine beaches are the tour guides because they make a living off of the island’s image.
Once the tour guide certification is established, a cleanup will be done to the sites that were contaminated and certified tour guides will be held responsible if it is discovered that there is a reoccurrence of human waste found on tourist sites once it has been cleaned out.
