Monday, April 28, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
DESPITE the year-round distribution of toilet bowls, there are still some 18,000 households in Cebu City that don’t have access to sanitary toilet facilities and 11,400 others that don’t have access to safe potable water yet.
Records of the City Health Department (CHD) show that of the 162,549 households in the city as of 2007, only 11 percent or 17,880 households do not have sanitary toilets and only seven percent or 11,379 still not have access to safe drinking water.
Assistant City Epidemiologist Durinda Macasocol said that in the depressed areas in the city, some households continue to share toilets with their neighbors.
In the mountain barangays, some households do with dug-up holes as their makeshift toilet facility, while some still defecate on old newspapers or plastic bags to be thrown away somewhere.
“When we get the toilet bowls, these areas will be prioritized,” Macasocol said in Cebuano.
City officials have earlier said that unsanitary toilet facilities pose health risks to the communities, because such toilets are host to flies and roaches that cause various kinds of infection.
A staff member of City Councilor Christopher Alix said the budget for the purchase of some 1,000 water-sealed toilet bowls has already been approved, but City Hall has yet to bid it out.
A request for another 500 toilet bowls is still pending for the mayor’s approval.
The 2007 Environmental Sanitation Report of the CHD also showed that of the 5,162 food establishments in the city, there are still 981 that don’t have sanitary permits.
Some 1,040 of the 7,428 non-food establishments in the city also don’t have sanitary permits.
There are also 6,036 food handlers working in the different food establishments in the city who have yet to secure health cards, which means that they still have not completed their orientation and other requirements set by the CHD.
According to their records, there are 33,533 food handlers working in the city. (LCR)
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