17 more fall ill to contaminated water

Seventeen more residents of the Foreshore area in Tondo, Manila fell ill to severe diarrhea last Wednesday, bringing to 576 the number of cases, including five deaths.

As this developed, the Department of Health, the Manila city government and Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI) took steps yesterday to halt a suspected outbreak.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said the outbreak of severe diarrhea — a symptom of cholera — was probably caused by human waste leaking into the water system or by people eating infected shellfish.

He said many of the cases, labeled as gastroenteritis, were believed to be due to infection from cholera bacteria, and that the rest were from salmonella and E coli bacteria. The National Epidemiology Center was conducting a probe, Dayrit said.

If left untreated, gastroenteritis — an inflammation of the stomach and intestines — can kill.

Sen. Manny Villar called on the government to punish erring officials whose negligence and irresponsibility have led to the outbreak.

At the same time, he said officials must inspect the quality of water being sold in water-filling stations in Tondo.

Dayrit noted that while the source of the contamination at the Foreshore area had already been contained, they expect more cases to surface in the coming days.

"The incubation period of this kind of illness is usually five days. So we can expect people to manifest symptoms in the next couple of days," he said.

Dayrit, along with Maynilad president Rafael Alunan III and Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, toured the Foreshore area yesterday to check the chlorination procedure and repair works being done there.

Alunan noted that the company is giving amnesty to Foreshore residents as part of their efforts to stop illegal connections.

"We are giving them 24 hours to legalize, otherwise we’ll disconnect them. Every citizen must take responsibility for their actions and must also help promote the common good," he added.

Alunan warned that Maynilad would press criminal charges against those involved in illegal water connections. "It’s a criminal offense under the Water Crisis Act," he said.

The city government of Manila will put assistance centers at the Foreshore area to assist those who want to avail of Maynilad’s program.

Under the scheme, Maynilad will allow owners of households where an illegal connection is found to apply for connection within 24 hours. If they fail to do so, the company will disconnect the illegal lines and they face appropriate charges in court.

Examinations conducted on the water samples jointly collected by the DOH and the Manila Health Department showed that the primary cause of the contamination of water in the area was human waste.

Health experts also collected stool samples from many affected residents and 81 of them tested positive for "vibrio cholerae," the bacteria that causes cholera. Others were positive for organisms such as aeromonas and salmonella typhi and para-typhi which both cause typhoid fever.

Dr. Florante Baltazar, officer-in-charge of the MHD, said the government does not have enough money to tests all the patients so only the severe cases are being examined to validate what hit them.

"The symptoms of gastroenteritis-related ailments are almost the same. So what is being done now is to test only the severe cases or those who suffer severe dehydration caused by profuse diarrhea and vomiting," he added.

Baltazar also said the method used to treat gastroenteritis cases is almost the same. The doctors administer rehydration therapy thorough intravenous fluid and oral rehydration solution, at times, antibiotic for severe cases.

Tripartite Efforts

Atienza said the continuing tripartite effort of the city government, the DOH and Maynilad would help make the situation manageable.

"Treatment, prevention and monitoring for gastroenteritis will continue until we are certain that the affected communities are safe," Atienza added.

Atienza, Dayrit and Alunan met at the Emilio Jacinto Elementary School yesterday and discussed long-term solutions to the water problem.

Responding to calls to rehabilitate water pipes in Foreshore, Alunan maintained that this might not be possible considering the huge amount of money that the project will require.

Alunan added that for the past three years, Maynilad had spent P200 million to repair its service pipes in the West Service Area that is composed of Manila, Caloocan City, Malabon, Navotas, Las Pinas, Parañaque and Pasay.

"A lot of money is being spent to go after illegal connections. And to rehabilitate the old tertiary pipes built 30 years ago by the National Housing Authority (NHA), we‘ll have to spend $7.5 billion," he said.

This developed as Dayrit asked Tondo residents to purify their drinking water, themselves, as a short-term measure against diseases. He admitted that given the presence of booster pumps, illegal connections and leaking pumps in Tondo, the disease outbreak was bound to happen.

The DOH had distributed among the residents, 2,000 puri-tabs which will be mixed in their drinking water. The city government of Manila is putting up three purifying stations in Foreshore that will provide residents with free potable water.

"I also hope that bleach solution could also be sold commercially there so that the residents can purify their drinking water themselves. We just have to teach them the right way to do it. The residents must also be educated about proper sanitation," Dayrit added.

Meanwhile, NHA General Manager Edgardo Pamintuan stressed that water pipes used by the agency for the foreshore project had passed the approved standards of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.

He branded as unfair the charges made by Alunan that the NHA used substandard pipes for the Tondo housing project.

He said these were false accusations since the water pipe laying project made by the NHA was part of the World Bank’s Urban Loan Project.

"In such cases, hindi pwedeng tanggapin ng WB kung substandard ang mga pipes," he said.

He added that MWSS had supervised the interconnection project.