ILOILO – Aside from poverty that hampers households from having sanitary toilets, lack of funds also hinders local government units in this province from achieving “zero open defecation” status.
The municipality of New Lucena, for example, managed to secure such status but only for Level 1 of the campaign – households sharing sanitary toilets.
Hurdling Level 2 – each household should have a sanitary toilet – is another matter, said Mayor Christian Sorongon.
“This has long been our target but financial constraints hinder us from achieving the goal,” said Sorongon.
The ultimate objective of the zero open defecation campaign – or eliminating the unhealthy exercise of open defecation – is to protect the public from disease outbreaks due to environmental contamination.
There are 42 towns and one component city in this province. Only nine were able to achieve zero open defecation, Level 1.
The Department of Health (DOH) has set an ambitious target that by 2022, all barangays in the country practicing open defecation shall attain zero open defecation status.
According to Sorongon, the municipal government of New Lucena allotted P100,000 for the procurement of sanitary toilets but this was not enough.
“We are going to seek assistance from, among others, the Provincial Health Office,” he said.
But this was not just about giving free sanitary toilets to households, he stressed.
The most important thing was to educate people on the importance of having one and stopping the unhygienic practice of relieving themselves just anywhere, said Sorongon.
According to the mayor, he had been visiting New Lucena barangays and discussing this public health concern with people.
“We make them understand the importance of good sanitation,” said Sorongon.
There were 5,389 households in New Lucena and of these “99 percent” already had their own sanitary toilets, according to the mayor.
The remaining “one percent”, he said, practiced toilet sharing.
Sorongon hoped that before this year was over, these remaining households would have their own sanitary toilets.
The municipality of Bingawan, on the other hand, managed to address the budgetary constraint by seeking help from the provincial government.
According to Mayor Mark Palabrica, Bingawan had a small Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and this was not enough.
IRA is the annual share of local governments out of the proceeds from national internal revenue taxes (income tax, estate tax and donor’s tax, value-added tax, other percentage taxes, taxes imposed by special laws, such as travel tax).
Palabrica was thankful that the provincial government gave his town several sanitary toilets.
Now, according to the mayor, almost all of the households in Bingawan have toilets.
He, however, clarified the municipal government did not just distribute sanitary toilets to households, especially the poor ones. It also provided them with cement, sand and gravel to make sure that proper toilets were built, he revealed.
Palabrica said there were 2,887 households in Bingawan.
“Giving away toilets alone will not solve our problem,” said Health secretary Francisco Duque in Manila. “Households should also be responsible.”
When governors and mayors give toilets for free, households should also invest their time and resources, however limited they may be, in building their own toilet facilities, he stressed.
Like the municipality of New Lucena, Bingawan also earned zero open defecation status, Level 1.
For Mayor Bert Belleza of San Rafael, meanwhile, the campaign focused on encouraging households to, on their own, strive to have sanitary toilets.
But he stressed his local government also released assistance to those that were financially hard-up.
“This is an ongoing campaign. Dapat tanan may yara,” said Belleza.
San Rafael Bingawan also earned zero open defecation status, Level 1, according to the Provincial Health Office.
Six other towns that managed to secure such status were Banate, Igbaras, Miag-ao, Mina, Oton, and San Miguel./PN
