EDITORIAL - Sanitation and groundwater

Back in November 2017, the Department of Health said it aimed to have basic toilet facilities installed in every household in the country. The DOH chief at the time said the country should not even wait till 2022 to achieve 100 percent coverage under the National Sustainable Sanitation Plan and the Zero Open Defecation Program or ZOPD.

At the time, it was estimated that about six percent of Filipinos, mostly in rural areas, still lacked sanitary toilets, with many still defecating in the open such as in fields and waterways, according to 2015 data. Under ZODP, a “Goodbye, Dumi! Hello, Healthy!” communication campaign was launched, in hopes of implementing a sea change in attitudes toward open defection.

Like most public health programs, unfortunately, ZODP was overshadowed by the COVID health crisis. As of 2021, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, 6.3 million households nationwide still use unsanitary toilets or practice open defecation. While nearly 25 percent of all barangays have been certified to have no more open defecation, that’s still a lot of households polluting fields and waterways. Health experts have warned that this pollution can lead not only to diarrhea and worm infections but also undernourishment and stunting in children.

At least the problem is not unique to the Philippines. As World Toilet Day was marked on Nov. 19, the United Nations stressed that “we are seriously off track” in achieving safe toilets for all by 2030, which is the promise of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6.2. “With only eight years left, the world needs to work four times faster to meet this targets,” UN-Water declared.

“We face a global sanitation crisis,” UN-Water said as it noted that 3.6 billion people worldwide continue to live with poor quality toilets, ruining their health and polluting the environment. For this year’s World Toilet Day, the UN has chosen the theme, “making the invisible visible.”

Emphasizing the link between sanitation and groundwater, it added: “Everyone must have access to a toilet connected to a sanitation system that effectively removes and treats human waste.”

The government will have to step up the campaign to provide every household in the country with a safe toilet and end open defecation. For years, the UN has stressed that the road to being healthy starts with a clean toilet.