Lembeh Water Quality??

[maat1976]

Hi All.

I just returned from Lembeh and it was an interesting experience. The diving was pretty AMAZING away from the villages, but some of them were truly disgusting, and we were diving in dirty diapers, as the villages use the water as their garbage dump, and the sewage goes in untreated as well. Yes I know it's a developing country.

I thought I had read up a fair bit on this area, but both my husband and I, and just about EVERYONE at our resorts (Two Fish in Lembeh and Bunaken) were suffering ear infections at some point. I have to assume this is due to the high level of bacteria in the water, as I've never experienced this before.

I don't know if I would have gone if I knew how dirty the water was going to be - I missed 4 days diving as a result. OK it could be bad luck, but the fact the resorts stocked two types of antibiotic drops, pills, and other ear infection remedies suggests not.

Did I miss the warnings on here? It really put a damper on diving and I was laid up in bed in massive pain on my 40th. I feel like a whiner - but it kinda sucked!

maat1976

 

[docmartin]

Don't know if you missed warnings but I am thankful for your post. I am done with diapers and not planning to go back. Saves me a long and pricey trip.

 

[maat1976]

It was a real shame as I had been looking forward to the trip for months, and my husband who is a doctor, was a little irritated I hadn't known about the water. I do all our dive trip planning, and I know he would have refused to go if this was known ahead of time. Philippines, or other Indonesian islands than Sulawesi next time!

 

[dirtfarmer]

Here on the Indo board people have pretty much stopped commenting about the trash in the water in Lembeh. ( some dive sights in Ambon make Lembeh look almost clean). It gets old waxing about the wonders of Lembeh than having to warn people that there is a lot of trash on some of the dive sites.
I've been 4x and I've never had ear infections there. I do religiously rinse my ears with fresh water and use vinegar/alcohol drops
also. I do that everywhere I dive. Even when doing that I'm more prone to ear problems in the Philippines than anywhere else. I can't seem to avoid problems at all there, usually one ear will develop a low grade problem and once that sets in I start using my antibiotics that I have with my on every trip.

No one wants a dive trip to be ruined by an ear infection, I can't recall an liveabord trip I've been on where someone hasn't been
suffering from one. I'm surprised that liveaboards and dive ops don't encourage people to take care of their ears more. Well customers are more likely to be happy than ones with ear infections.

 

[WetPup]

Here on the Indo board people have pretty much stopped commenting about the trash in the water in Lembeh. ( some dive sights in Ambon make Lembeh look almost clean). It gets old waxing about the wonders of Lembeh than having to warn people that there is a lot of trash on some of the dive sites.
I've been 4x and I've never had ear infections there. I do religiously rinse my ears with fresh water and use vinegar/alcohol drops
also. I do that everywhere I dive. Even when doing that I'm more prone to ear problems in the Philippines than anywhere else. I can't seem to avoid problems at all there, usually one ear will develop a low grade problem and once that sets in I start using my antibiotics that I have with my on every trip.

No one wants a dive trip to be ruined by an ear infection, I can't recall an liveabord trip I've been on where someone hasn't been
suffering from one. I'm surprised that liveaboards and dive ops don't encourage people to take care of their ears more. Well customers are more likely to be happy than ones with ear infections.

+1

I've been to Lembeh 8 times. I use ear drops after every dive (regardless of where I dive, this is not unique to Lembeh). I have never had ear problems. Lembeh is also the place where I learned about keeping my reg mouthpiece out of the water. I never leave it dangling in the water, I always hold it above my head until it goes in my mouth, or hold it up until my gear is lifted onto the boat. Force of habit now - I do it everywhere. People ask me why because it seems weird to them that I'm doing it in pristine waters - it's because of the water and garbage in Lembeh.

It is what it is. I've never been sick in Lembeh. Take precautions, go diving, have fun, see critters, take photos...Gloat to your friends about another awesome Lembeh trip!

 

[maat1976]

We just got home and it seems the second ear is also infected... I rinsed thoroughly after every dive... As did the husband, who is also infected.

While the diving was great, if I had known I'd be swimming in sewage, I would have chosen somewhere else, because it was totally not worth the risk of losing dives for the distance and cost of the trip.

 

[AlMitch]

Ditto what Dirtfarmer and Wetpup said, been there 3 times (and planning a 4th) and never had a problem. Ear beer is my friend.

I'm surprised that liveaboards and dive ops don't encourage people to take care of their ears more. Well customers are more likely to be happy than ones with ear infections.

Great point Dirtfamer!

The magical critters far outshone the trash..... but then again I never spotted a diaper.... yuck!!

I can imagine your disappointment missing out on numerous dives. That is never fun.

 

[maat1976]

At at least 3 sites I spotted full bags of dirty diapers on the muck. Literally swimming in poo.

To be honest, I'm surprised it's not worse than ear infections...

Even the instructors were falling to the ear issues...

 

[Luko]

I am not sure it's a Lembeh problem.
I am quite ear sensitive, for many years, each time I went to North Sulawesi, I had to stop for a day and live a painful night because of an internal ear iinfection problem, although I mostly dived Bangka which has clean blue water. Strangely I can say I rested more often in Bangka than in Lembeh.
Then I brought some white vinegar and after each dive rinsed my ears with a 10% dilution of vinegar and water and since my stays were much comfortable.

Other than Bangka, it happened to me in Anilao, Bali and Sipadan, although never had any ear pain in Ambon or other places in Indo or in the Phils. I don't think t's a problem of water quality but rather a problem with some kind of plankton rich waters.
.

 

[billt4sf]

THIS thread is VERY interesting! I have never heard about all this. We have to develop a plan for this for our year in Bali / Indo / Phils. DEFINITELY !!!

Thanks,

Bill & Emily