An article showing the data of the National Household Targeting System on Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) on the lack of sanitary toilets among poor household in Region VI has caught the concern of the Iloilo Provincial Capitol.

The Iloilo Provincial Government has allocated P5 million for the purchase of toilet bowls and cement to more than 3,000 families who have no sanitary toilets.

Provincial Health Officer, Dr.Patricia Grace Trabado, said they are now finalizing the list of beneficiaries who were identified through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s special project, the NHTS-PR.

Once the records are ready, Trabado said the Bids and Awards Committee will proceed with the bidding process.

“We are hoping to distribute the toilet bowls within the third quarter of the year to address the growing number of households without sanitary toilets,” she said.

In a press release, DSWD said the NHTS-PR data show that seven out of 10 poor households have no sanitary toilets. They use open and closed pit and some have no toilet facilities at all, exposing them to threats of contracting various diseases.

Among the six provinces of the region, Negros Occidental has the most number of households without sanitary toilets with 85, 285. In the same province, only 30,616 households are using water sealed toilets while 7, 180 are using closed pit, 12,603 are using open pit and 2,980 are using pails and other improvised toilets.

Iloilo came in second with 19,379 households without sanitary toilets; followed by Antique, 13,956; Capiz, 4,602; Aklan, 4,540 and Guimaras, 3,470.

The lack of sanitary toilets may also result to possible contamination of water sources as most of the poor households in the region do not have access to potable water.

Upon reading the news, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor, Sr. immediately reacted and made a pronouncement that the province will allocate funds for the solution of the problem.

The governor is hoping that the project will materialize soon to avoid exposure of the communities to diseases caused by unsanitary practices like the use of open pit toilets or using no toilet bowls at all.

He said they will be prioritizing households living in coastal and far-flung towns in the province like the coastal towns of Concepcion, Estancia and Carlesand far-flung towns inMiag-ao, Lambunao, Tubungan and Igbaras.

“Mostly households living in those towns were really poorest of the poor that they could not even provide their own comfort rooms. We will help them to avail the program because aside from toilet bowl there is a cash component that they could use for their materials”, he said.

Defensor said the capitol is looking for an additional budget so more poor households will be provided with sanitary toilets./DSWD6/WennaBerondo-Bendol