AN upland well owned by Danao City’s local water district was found to be positive of fecal coliform, officials of the Department of Health (DOH) Central Visayas said.
DOH 7’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU) recommended to the city government to not only improve its deep well in Barangay Sabang, but also to remove a septic tank located about nine meters away from it.
Rennan Cimafranca, DOH-RESU 7 chief epidemiologist, told reporters the tainted water source is located a kilometer away from the Cebu Mitsumi Inc., where 200 of its employees were hospitalized after drinking sago’t gulaman with tainted ice water.
Of the 200 employees that were affected, only two persons were confirmed to have cholera while 38 others were admitted for stomach pains.
Cimafranca said they were able to trace the source of the contamination to a well owned by the city’s local water district.
“Sa dihang naistoryaan namo ang namaligya’g ice nga maoy tinubdan sa source of infection, ingon siya nga ang iyang ice gikan man gyud sa tubig sa water district (The ice vendor said he got his water from the water district),” he said.
During the inspection last Monday, they found that not only was the well tainted with fecal coliform, its facilities were also not managed properly.
Defective
They found that the well had defective pipes and its chlorinator was not producing enough chlorine to clean the water source.
Cimafranca said there was a septic tank just a few meters away from the well, which made contamination likely to occur.
He said that before the cholera outbreak in Cebu Mitsumi Inc., there had been sporadic cases of diarrhea within the area.
Inspection
After their inspection, Cimafranca recommended to the barangay to initially increase the chlorine content of the well’s chlorinator from .3 particle parts per million (ppm) to .38 ppm.
If the contamination subsides to a significant level, Cimafranca advised them to lessen the chlorine content to .1 ppm.
He also advised the barangay to remove the septic tank near the well to avoid any further contamination.
They also issued recommendations to the Danao City Government to impose their recommendations and require food and drink vendors to secure health and sanitation permits.