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SOME 31 Filipinos, mostly children, die everyday from diarrhea due
topoor sanitation, according to a recent study of the World Bank
(WB) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The study, entitled Economic Impacts of
Sanitation in the Philippines, showed P77.8 billion per annum
account for additional healthcare costs and lost wages due to poor
sanitation.
The study was funded by World Bank’s Water and
Sanitation Program (WSP) and USAID’s-Environmental
Cooperation-Asia.
The report cited the Philippines Statistical
Yearbook 2008 as stating high incidence of diarrhea cases of more
than 38 million per year leads to the premature deaths of 31
Filipinos a day.
The report said 27 million Filipinos do not have
toilets and are at risk of ingesting human fecal material. The
health impacts of water pollution, and poor sanitation and hygiene
comes from contact with human waste through ingestion.
The study showed 27 million households without
sanitary toilets have higher risks of ingesting human waste, said
Lisa Kircher, director of USAid-EcoAsia Project in the
Philippines.
Kircher said that the lack of toilets, sewage
systems and operational wastewater treatment facilities causes many
Filipinos to contract waterborne diseases.
A single gram of human waste can contain 10
million viruses, a million bacteria and a million parasite cysts, it
noted.
“Once human waste enters the body, the
bacteria, parasites and viruses can grow, causing symptoms, such as
diarrhea, which is common among bacterial infections such as
dysentery, cholera, hepatitis A and typhoid,” she said.
The World Bank report said some 13 million
Filipinos do not have improved water sources, and only 3.3 percent
of the households are connected to sewers leading to the treatment
facilities.
Access to basic sanitation is 20 percent lower
for low-income households, while access to water supply is 17
percent lower, said Rahul Raturi, World Bank sector manager for
environment and rural development.
The Bank said more than 95 percent of the
wastewater in urban areas is deposited untreated into groundwater,
canals and waterways.
“As a result, water supplies are commonly
contaminated, and people in urban slums are exposed directly to raw
sewage,” he noted.
The study came up with four policy
recommendations—an increased political importance and budget
allocations for sanitation facilities, an intensified education and
information drive on the health benefits of improved sanitation, the
development of a policy and regulatory framework for environmental
and health protection, and the conduct of further research studies
on the economic and welfare impacts of poor sanitation.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd called for
higher investments in sanitation and sewerage system.
The Economics of Sanitation Initiative said
parallel studies would be undertaken to provide cost-benefit
estimates for different sanitation options and sanitation management
models.
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