Basic toilet a must in every household — DOH

Basic toilet facilities should be a must for every Filipino household, more than having mobile phones, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said yesterday.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Duque noted that only 70 percent of Filipino households have their own toilet, while 84 percent of households own a mobile phone.

“We have more Filipinos with mobile phones than those with functional toilets,” he said during the World Toilet Day celebration at the Department of Health (DOH) central office in Manila.

Data from the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) showed that around seven million Filipinos, mostly in rural areas, still practice open defecation.

According to UNICEF country representative Lotta Sylwander, open defecation is a threat to public health.

“When our neighbors defecate in the open, in fields and waterways, our children will more likely experience frequent bouts of diarrhea, acquire worm infections and grow up stunted and undernourished,” Sylwander said.

To address this issue, the DOH has embarked on Zero Open Defecation (ZOD) program and health education campaign. The program targets all barangays practicing open defecation to be declared ZOD status by 2022.

Duque said “giving away toilets alone would not solve the problem.”

“Households and communities need to be prepared. They should be responsible. When our governors and mayors give toilets for free, household heads should also invest their time and resources, however limited they may be, in building their own toilet facilities,” he added.