White Beach

White Beach runs four kilometres along the western side of Boracay, a small island off the north-west tip of Panay in the Philippines. It is divided into three stations, numbered from north to south, and the differences between them are the practical geography of the place.

It is the clearest case of a government closing a destination to fix it. By 2018 Boracay was taking two million visitors a year on an island of ten square kilometres, and untreated sewage was being discharged directly into the sea; the president described it as a cesspool and ordered a total closure. The island shut for six months, drainage and sewerage were rebuilt, hundreds of non-compliant structures were demolished, and it reopened in October 2018 under new rules — a beach easement kept clear of buildings, no drinking or smoking on the sand, capped visitor numbers, and no more fire dancing, parties or sandcastles on the beach.

The beach itself is exceptional and always was: four kilometres of fine white coral sand, a gradual entry, and calm shallow water on the sheltered side of the island through the dry season. Sunsets face straight down it. The eastern side, Bulabog, takes the wind and is the kitesurfing beach.

Development is dense behind the easement — hotels, restaurants and a shopping strip — but no longer on the sand itself, which is the visible change since the closure. Compliance has slipped in places and periodic enforcement drives continue. Puka Shell Beach at the northern end is the quiet counterweight — coarse shell sand, almost nothing built, and the beach Boracay had before the strip.

Closed for six months in 2018 because the island was discharging untreated sewage into the sea, and reopened with a cleared easement, capped numbers and no parties on the sand. The beach is exceptional and was nearly lost. Puka at the northern end is what Boracay looked like before the strip.