Bulk of population lacks access to toilet

A RECENT government survey showed that 19.4 percent of families in Central Visayas have no electricity at home, while 18 percent have no toilet facilities.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed this last week as it presented the results of the 2009 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FEIS) to government agencies, the private sector and academe.

One of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to ensure that 83.8 percent of Filipinos will have access to a sanitary toilet facility by 2015.

No access

According to the World Toilet Organization (WTO), a global non-profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide, an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide have no access to sanitation.

WTO has declared Nov. 19 as World Toilet Day, as part of efforts to raise awareness
and generate local action for better sanitation.

Meanwhile, the Rural Power Project of the Department of Energy aims to provide electricity to all barangays in the Philippines by 2008 and 90 percent of all Filipino households by 2017.

The FEIS, done every three years, also revealed that the income of families in Central Visayas grew in 2009. The average annual income of families in Central Visayas increased from P144,000 in 2006 to P184,000 in 2009 at current prices, or an increase of 27.8 percent.

Worst

The survey, which covered 51,000 households nationwide, showed that income inequality in the region, measured using a statistical tool called gini coefficient, is among the worst in the country.

The annual family expenditures in Central Visayas also increased by 22.6 percent, from P124,000 in 2006 to P152,000 in 2009, according to the survey.

NSO Central Office Deputy Administrator Paula Monina Collado said the results of the FEIS “serve as inputs to different planning and programming procedures.”

She added that the survey is crucial in monitoring poverty, as well as the progress the country has made in achieving the MDG targets, which include cutting poverty by half by 2015.