EDITORIAL - Water for health

How can a health facility have dirty toilets, or no toilet at all? But such is the state of three out of 10 health facilities in the Philippines, according to a study conducted jointly by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The 2019 report prepared by the WHO and Unicef Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene or WASH said 23 percent of health care facilities in the Philippines have dirty toilets while four percent have no toilets at all.

The WHO-Unicef report covers the global situation and shows that the problem is not unique to the Philippines. The study reports that the lack of basic water services is also felt in about a fourth of health care facilities worldwide, impacting an estimated two billion people.

The “WASH in Health Care Facilities” is the first comprehensive global baseline assessment of water, sanitation and hygiene in establishments providing health care. Many health centers, according to the report, lack facilities for basic sanitation, hand hygiene and the safe segregation and disposal of health care waste. These are critical in preventing infections and reducing the risks of childbirth.

In the Philippines, the problem afflicts health centers not just in underdeveloped areas but even in Metro Manila, where some infant deaths have been blamed on sepsis due to limited water and poor sanitation in overcrowded health care establishments. 

The recent water crisis in the east service sector of Metro Manila, which has not yet been completely resolved, illustrates the seriousness of the problem. There’s a popular saying about health being wealth. Millions of Filipinos, unfortunately, are wanting in both finances and health. Among the reasons for this are inadequate water supply as well as poor sanitation and hygiene. Health centers in particular cannot be deprived of these basic services. You can’t provide health care without safe water and clean toilets.