ILOILO – Tigbauan now has a “zero open defecation” status, according to the Provincial Health Office (PHO).
Having achieved such status means that all residents in the 1st District town have access to safe toilets.
Kristine Angeli Molina, PHO sanitation inspector, said on Friday that all of the municipality’s 52 barangays had completely abandoned the practice of open defecation.
The verification team – composed of representatives of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), and Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO) – has worked hand in hand to provide support to households that lacked resources in installing toilets.
Molina attributed the accomplishment to the effective advocacies that reached villages with the help of the local government unit and village officials.
“We reached out, urged and assisted residents in villages, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, to put up toilets and reinforce basic sanitation practices, like proper hand washing,” Molina said on Saturday.
She added that the PHO has encountered problems in declaring Tigbauan as open defecation-free town because residents in coastal villages do not own the land where their houses are located – a reason behind the difficulty in building toilets.
The problem was addressed when the residents were relocated to a safer area following a typhoon.
“Residents eventually put up their own toilets with the help of the government,” Molina said.
Tigbauan was officially given a zero open defecation status last Jan. 14, an addition to 15 other municipalities in the province that were declared open defecation-free last Dec. 30.
These are the towns of Banate, Barotac Viejo, Batad, Bingawan, Igbaras, Janiuay, Lemery, Miag-ao, Mina, New Lucena, Oton, Passi City, San Miguel, San Rafael, and San Joaquin.
Dr. Patricia Grace Trabado, PHO chief said open defecation could expose people to diarrhea, cholera and other water-borne diseases, intestinal worm infections, malnutrition, and stunting of children.
Tabado is hopeful that all local government units in Iloilo province could achieve the zero open defecation status by 2020. (With a report from PNA/PN)
