ILOILO – The provincial government’s “Mobilizing Communities through People-Centered Zero Open Defecation (ZOD) Movement towards a Sustainable Sanitation” is one of the 20 finalists for the coveted Galing Pook Awards.
Galing Pook executive director Georgina Ann Hernandez-Yang invited Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. to appear for a panel presentation and interview on Oct. 11 at the Mall of Asia Arena annex auditorium.
“I don’t want to miss mentioning anyone who contributed to this success…but to everyone, sa tanan nga mga Ilonggos, aton ni daog tanan!” said Iloilo Provincial Health Office head Dr. Maria Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon, who was on the frontline implementing the ZOD campaign.
Defensor presented the entry to Galing Pook validators Jose Rene Gayo, Miguel Rene Dominguez and Adonis Caballero last week during a validation.
He said the ZOD is a fundamental health project, stressing that health is significant to human resources, which in turn has a major role in his development agenda called “Movement for a Robust, Progressive, Globally Competitive, and Resilient Province of Iloilo”.
The ZOD program has two components: behavioral adjustment and capital interventions by the province.
In capital intervention, the province provided an annual budget of P5 million to purchase toilet bowls, cement, and pipes for target recipients, whose counterpart is the labor component.
The provincial government also made sure that there is a water system in waterless areas.
“The important thing about that is the institutional collaboration, together with municipalities and barangays, on effective three levels of interventions, including motivation, training, education, and capital,” he said.
The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) first introduced ZOD to the province after the onslaught of Typhoon “Yolanda.”
Barangay Bariga in Banate town was the first village out of the province’s 1,721 barangays to achieve ZOD status in 2015.
The municipality of San Enrique was the last town to clinch ZOD status upon verification of the compliance of its 28 barangays last year.
Iloilo province was conferred ZOD Grade 1 status on Nov. 18, 2022.
It was the first province in Western Visayas and in the country to be conferred the ZOD seal./PN
