Swim where? Manila Bay? It isn’t safe to swim there because the water has been declared as unsafe for swimming. Manila Bay serves as catch basin for both solid and liquid waste from the surrounding places of Manila Bay for several years now. You’ll see tons of floating solid waste from plastic containers, soiled pampers, strapping tape to human waste, as literally thousands of shanties lack drainage and septic tanks to hold their waste.

What can you get from swimming in unsafe water? Besides contracting skin diseases, the probability of ingesting coli form and e-coli is high, which causes hepatitis, giardiasis, and dysentery, to name a few.

So if you plan to take a dip in what you thought as “pristine” waters of Manila Bay, better think twice. You don’t want to swim in a literal septic tank, do you?