1.5M households outside metro without access to clean water

MANILA, Philippines—Over 1.5 million households outside Metro Manila have no access to safe, clean drinking water, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government.

These households are found in 432 municipalities across the country which are considered “waterless” municipalities, or those that are experiencing less than 50 percent of water service coverage.

Majority of these “waterless” municipalities, according to the DILG citing the Philippine Water Supply Sector Roadmap, are in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (75), Western Visayas (74), Central Visayas (36), and Zamboanga (34).

Because of this, three government agencies are stepping up efforts to provide water and sanitation to these “waterless” municipalities to achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals.

The DILG and the Department of Health (DoH) signed a memorandum of agreement on Wednesday for a collaborative effort to bring potable water to poor households living in “waterless” municipalities.

Under the agreement, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) is tasked to implement the program by ensuring that priority will be given to the villages that have the highest density of poor households.

The NAPC is also tasked to make sure that all water and sanitation projects of local government units will be implemented accordingly.

Meanwhile, the DoH will provide the funding for the monitoring and implementation of water and sanitation projects.

Finally, the DILG is tasked to develop and implement partnership with the private sector and non-government organizations for the full implementation of the program.

The government is implementing the President’s Priority Program on Water (P3W) as part of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), and to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe potable water and basic sanitation. –Abigail Kwok, INQUIRER.net