BACOLOD City – For failing to secure sanitary and business permits, 61 water refilling stations in this city were advised by the City Health Office (CHO) to temporarily close.
This is in line with the CHO’s ongoing monitoring of all water refilling stations, dealers, resellers and transporters to check the potability of community water sources and prevent the spread of cholera.
Bacolod has been on alert for cholera following one reported case over a week ago. The patient already recovered and was discharged from the hospital.
CHO Environment Sanitation Division chief, Dr. Grace Tan said that of the 142 water refilling stations they had inspected as of Sept. 23, 81 had business permits while 61 had none.
Their failure to secure business permits meant they neither had sanitary permits.
“So, the CHO advised the 61 water refilling stations to temporarily close their establishments while they are processing their permits,” Tan said.
She further explained that the CHO has no authority to order the closure of the water refilling stations because only the City Legal Office is authorized to do it, so they (CHO) only advised the establishments to close temporarily.
Tan also said they could not fully account the total number of water refilling stations operating in the city because others are operating without names or are bogus./PN
