31 Pinoys die of diarrhea daily

MANILA, Philippines – Some 31 Filipinos, mostly children, die from diarrhea everyday due to poor sanitation, according to a recent study of the World Bank and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The “Economic Impacts of Sanitation in the Philippines” study funded by World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and USAID’s-Environmental Cooperation-Asia showed that P77.8 billion have been accounted for health-care costs and lost wages yearly as a result of poor sanitation.

The report cited the Philippines’ Statistical Yearbook 2008 as stating high incidence of diarrhea cases – more than 38 million per year – leading to the premature deaths of 31 Filipinos a day.

The report said 27 million Filipinos do not have toilets and are at risk of ingesting human fecal, adding that the health impact from water pollution, poor sanitation and hygiene comes from contact with human waste through ingestion.

According to Lisa Kircher, Director of USAID-EcoAsia Project in the Philippines, the lack of toilets, sewage systems and operational wastewater treatment facilities causes many Filipinos to contract water-borne diseases.

The report said a single gram of human waste can contain 10 million viruses, a million bacteria and a million parasite cysts.

“Once human waste enters the body, the bacteria, parasites and viruses can grow, causing symptoms such as diarrhea, which is common among bacterial infections such as dysentery, cholera, hepatitis A and typhoid,” Kircher explained.

The World Bank report said there are 13 million Filipinos who do not have improved water sources and only 3.3 percent of the households are connected to sewers leading to treatment facilities.

Access to basic sanitation is 20 percent less for low-income households and access to water supply is 17 percent lower, said Rahul Raturi, sector manager for environment and rural development of World Bank.

The report also noted that more than 95 percent of the wastewater in urban areas is deposited untreated into groundwater, canals and waterways.