ILOILO – All of the 1,721 barangays here have been certified as “zero open defecation” (ZOD) villages, making Iloilo the third province in the country to eradicate the unhygienic practice.
Iloilo is also the first in Western Visayas to achieve such feat, according to Dr. Maria Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon, Iloilo Provincial Health Office (IPHO) head.
“Proud to inform everyone,” said Quiñon, that either all households have their own sanitary toilets or they share toilets.
The first provinces to achieve ZOD status were Sarangani and Leyte, data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed.
According to Quiñon, before the verification team declares an area ZOD, it assesses the barangays.
The ZOD municipal verification and certification team is composed of the municipal health officer, provincial sanitation inspector, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, rural health personnel (as assigned), Municipal Engineering Office, Municipal Agriculture Office, and Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
The provincial government of Iloilo helped the 1,721 barangays achieve ZOD status through the following measures:
* institutionalization of the ZOD Program through the passage of Provincial Ordinance No. 2018-179 (“ZOD Ordinance of the Province of Iloilo”)
* adoption of the ZOD Program in the municipal and barangay levels through the implementation of the Philippine Approach to Sustainable Sanitation (PhaTSS)
* allocated P5 million for the provision of toilet bowls in identified households
* organization of the Municipal Verification Team task to certify and declare ZOD municipalities and barangays
* continuous advocacy on PhaTSS
Quiñon further said that every year the provincial government allots P5 million to purchase toilet bowls, cement and pipes to be given to barangays for them to build toilets for every household.
The recipients, meanwhile, will be responsible for the labor or construction of the toilets.
IPHO started its ZOD campaign in barangay and municipal levels in 2015, with the help of municipal health officers, Sangguniang Bayan members who handled the health and sanitation committee, municipal nurses, and representatives from the DOH.
The campaign aims to ensure that there will be no defecation in open surroundings to prevent the contamination of water sources which could result in many diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis, diarrhea, and amoebiasis, among others.
And for the 1,721 barangays in the province to sustain their ZOD status, Quiñon said, the provincial government and concerned municipal and barangay officials will conduct regular monitoring./PN
