Friday, June 08, 2007 Tap water is 100% safe, says health office
TAP water is safe to drink.
Thus declared the Center for Health Development of the Department of Health (DOH) in Cordillera, dispelling a common notion nowadays that tap water is unsafe for consumption.
Gaudencio Tiwing, head of the DOH Environment and Occupational Health Division, said the Baguio Water District's source of water is consistently inspected to assure that water could be drunken straight from our faucets.
Tiwing said the problem lies not within the water source but in old and corroding pipes. However, he said this could easily be remedied by replacement of old pipes.
Owing it to unfounded reports that tap water is contaminated and therefore is unsafe for drinking and cooking, water-refillers mushroomed throughout the city, over the past few years.
Last year however, through the initiative a group of bottled-water refillers, it turned out that a large number of refillers did not pass the standards set by the DOH and the City Health Services Office (CHSO) for drinking water.
The names of those who passed the inspection done by a joint team of the CHSO and the Baguio Association of Purified and Mineral Water Refillers (BAPMWR) was published to inform the public of compliant and non-compliant refillers.
Those complying with safety and hygiene requirements were issued safety seals containing the BAPMWR's logo, which is now used to fasten bottled-water containers that passed inspection. (RO)
