1.46M Filipino families do not have access to proper toilets

Judith Serrano and her family has been residing in Baseco, Tondo for almost two decades. At present, they did not have access to toilet facilities connected to a sewage treatment plant.

In a "24 Oras" special report by Joseph Morong, Serrano shared that, to answer the call of nature, her children often used the restrooms of their aunts.

Other residents in the area had toilets that were not fitted with septic tanks.

According to Serrano, the urine and stool of the residents went straight to the sea.

"Diretso na po 'yun sa dagat. Hindi na po sila nagbubuhos kasi dire-diretso na po sa baba ‘yun," she explained.

According to the 2017 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Poverty Indicators Survey, there are 1.46 million  families who don't have toilets.

Meanwhile, there were about a million families who used toilets with "unimproved sanitation facilities" that are not connected to septic tanks or sewerage systems, and 3.6 million families who use toilets connected to pits dug from the ground.

The problem of the lack of adequate toilet facilities also persisted in the city.

"Pagdating dito sa urban area, biggest problem ng households na walang toilet is ‘yung space. Wala na silang mapaglagyan ng lugar na puwedeng pagtayuan ng toilet nila," said Elmira Batacan, a UNICEF Philippines Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist.

Aside from the Cebu Butanon River samples which tested positive for the poliovirus, thirty-one out of 142 water samples from sewage treatment plants and waterways not connected to any treatment facilities also tested positive for the life-threatening virus, according to results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

Thirty of the polio-positive samples came from Metro Manila, and one came from Davao City.  

The Department of Health (DOH) had plans of ending the problem of open defecation by 2022 with its Zero Open Defecation Program (ZODP) advocacy and health education campaign.

It said that this won't be an easy task, as there was a lack of budget.

"Few years ago, we would get mga 20 million a year, pero itong huli natin nung 2019, three million pesos lamang ang budget na ‘to," said DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo.

He clarified that the building of toilet facilities was not under the DOH's responsibility.

Under the Local Government Code of 1991, it is the responsibility of the local government units (LGUs) to provide "basic services and facilities related to general hygiene and sanitation."

In a written statement, however, the DILG said that "the Bureau has not yet issued any order to LGUs relative to their compliance to the Philippine Clean Water Act."

Meanwhile, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that there are existing groups deployed to survey the affected areas.

"May mga working groups na inaatasan para i-survey iyong area para malaman kung sino ‘yung mga walang proper toilet. So 'yung isang activity to address this is gumagawa ng mga public toilets," said Dr. Maricris Laciste, OIC of the DENR-Environmental Management Bureau- Water Quality Management Section. —Angelica/NB, GMA News