How many houses don’t have septic tanks?

ILOILO City – A septic tank is an underground catchment for feces, urine and other waste matter.

How many houses in this city do not have septic tanks?

Councilor Reyland Hervias introduced a resolution urging barangay councils to conduct a septic tank inventory during yesterday’s session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod ( SP).

The city has 180 barangays and a population of 447,992 (2015 census).

Among others, the results of the inventory would help the city government address the problems on clogged drainage and on heath due to contaminated deep wells, said Hervias, also the president of the Liga ng mga Barangay.

Hervias said one of the causes of drainage clogging were households not having septic tanks. He said these houses drain their domestic waste to the public drainage system.

This practice endangers public health, he said, especially when there is flood.

Leachate could also reach sources of drinking water such as wells, he warned.

“Kalabanan sa barangay, sa deep well nagakakuha sang tubig. Kung wala sang septic tank ang isa ka community diin makadto ang ila mga human waste kag iban pa nga higko? Sa drainage,” said Hervias.

This June 30, Hervias and the City Planning and Development Office are meeting with all barangay captains and discuss with them the possible construction of communal septic tanks as proposed by the United States Agency for International Development.

Recently, Councilor R Leone Gerochi called for a comprehensive program managing septic tanks and procedures in dislodging waterwaste pursuant to the Clean Water Act of 2004.

Worried about possible disease outbreaks and the contamination of the city’s groundwater, he pressed for the regular draining of septic tanks in households.

The extraction or siphoning of waste must be done by accredited service contractors, he said.

A sound septage management program will avert disease outbreaks and shield the city’s groundwater from contaminants, said Gerochi. “The waste extractors must move the waste in a certain secure place for treatment before releasing this to the environment,” he said.

The proper disposal of waste will protect the city’s biodiversity and improve the Ilonggos’ quality of life, said Gerochi.

“Gapuno ang aton septic tanks tapos naga- hire lang kita sang manugsuyop. We don’t really know kon diin nila ginahaboy,” Gerochi lamented.

The councilor also said septic tanks in households, businesses and other establishments may not have been properly designed and constructed.

Section 7 of the Clean Water Act provides, among others, that each local government unit may raise funds to subsidize necessary expenses for the operation and maintenance of sewerage treatment or septage facilities servicing their area of jurisdiction through real property taxes and enforcement of a service fee system./