Wednesday, November 08, 2006
About 1M residents of S. Mindanao without toilets
By Stella A. Estremera
DAVAO CITY -- Close to a million residents in Southern Mindanao don't have sanitary toilets, a report on the state of the region's children by Department of Social Welfare and Development Regional Director Mercedita Jabagat showed.
"It is sad to note that those who have the greatest number of households without sanitary toilets are those in the urban areas," Jabagat said in her presentation at the Grand Men Seng Hotel Tuesday.
With four years already off the 2015 target of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the continued lack of such facilities has still to be addressed with the number of households with toilets seesawing around the 70 percent mark from 2002 to 2005.
The target for 2015 under the MDG is "to halve the proportion of people with no access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, or those who cannot afford it by 2015."
For the whole Davao Region, with a population of 3,676,162 (Census 2000 with an estimate of five persons per household), 74 percent of households had sanitary toilets in 2003. This increased to 75.3 percent in 2003, dropped to 73.5 percent in 2004, and then increased to 75 percent in 2005.
Per province figures showed a similar trend of relatively no improvement.
In Davao del Sur, 67.5 percent of the households had toilets in 2002 and 2003. This dropped to 58.2 percent in 2004, and then increased to 70 percent in 2005.
Compostela Valley showed a slow but steady increase with just 64.8 percent having toilets in 2002 then increasing to 67.8 percent the following year. By 2004, 68.4 percent already have toilets, and this stood at 70 percent as of last year.
A slightly faster increase was noted in Davao del Norte starting with 69.4 percent of the households having toilets in 2002, 71.4 percent in 2003, 73.6 percent in 2004, and 75 percent in 2005.
In Davao City, figures are swinging, starting from a high of 79.6 percent of households having toilets in 2002, which increased to 81 percent in 2003, and dropped to 64.5 percent in 2004, leveling off at 75 percent in 2005.
Considering that the city has the biggest population in the whole region at 1,147,116 with an estimated 230,000 households, there are still 57,500 households or around 287,500 people who do not have toilets.
Jabagat said there are two common reasons for the lack of this basic sanitary facility.
First reason cited by Jabagat is that in congested areas like the inner city settlement areas in Davao City, there is not much space left to have sanitary toilets per family.
The second reason, she said, is "those living in coastal areas don't find it necessary to have a sanitary toilet." (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pangasinan. (November 8, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
Councilors question cops on killings