Oro to form body to keep tap water safe

TheMonitroMindanaoToday.com  | Oro to form body to keep tap water safe

By: Uriel Quilinguing

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – After battling with a spike of acute gastroenteritis cases for over two weeks, the city government here is set to create a drinking water quality surveillance committee to forestall what could be a health crisis.

This was agreed in a meeting City Mayor Rolando Uy called on Thursday, October 9, with the Cagayan de Oro City Water District (COWD) board directors, health and environment department managers, and a health agency regional representative.

The creation of body on drinking water is in a Joint Memorandum Order No. 2022-0003 that the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Interior and Local Government issued pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 856, the Code on Sanitation of the Philippines.

Once formed, Uy’s main objective of regular collection of water samples and laboratory tests and analysis can be undertaken, even as he appealed to the COWD to take the lead because it has a DOH-accredited water quality testing facility.

Earlier, COWD General Manager Edna Najeal told The Monitor Mindanao Today that their three-year Certificate of Accreditation (COA) from the DOH is set to expire next year, hence they are on-process for COA renewal. This, she said, requires the submission of a corresponding three-year Water Safety Plan.

Najeal said their laboratory personnel collect samples from 120 pre-identified areas aside from random water sample collections – these to make sure residual chlorine is detected at the farthest distribution points.

The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) requires all water districts to submit monthly report on physico-clinical analysis for drinking water and microbial testing on water samples collected.

As enumerated in the DOH-DILG JAO No. 2022-0003, the local drinking quality surveillance committee is to be composed by the local water district, health, environment, engineering offices, legislative body, and representatives from a non-governmental organization, health and sanitation association, and from the DOH.

Last week, City Health Officer Rachel Daba-Dilla, who heads the City Health Department, said they had recorded 592 individuals who exhibited symptoms of acute gastroenteritis (AGE), consisting of 219 inpatients, 277 outpatients, and 96 self-medications.

“Most of the admissions were in private hospitals,” Daba-Dilla said in a press conference on October 2, and that only one was admitted at the city government-owned Justiniano R. Borja General Hospital. “No new cases of AGE,” she added.

She said that for a week, food stores in the downtown area, mostly inside the malls, were barred from giving service water while samples are being taken — the first batch of which tested positive for contamination.

Daba-Dilla said they have sent water samples to the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) through the DOH Regional Office 10 to confirm their initial findings, as well as that of the COWD.

Earlier that day (October 9), the COWD commissioned an additional 4.32-million liters per day (MLD) of bulk water supply from its supplier, South Balibago Resources, Inc. (SBRI) at Sitio Bolao, Barangay Iponan –- a village situated about eight kilometers west from the city proper.

The city chief executive graced the ceremonies that could benefit some 4,500 households in the presence of COWD board of directors and managers, SBRI representatives, and Barangay Iponan officials.

“Dako nakong kalipay ug pasalamat sa Ginoo nga niabot na gyud ang sakto nga panahon nga ang kasolbaran sa hinay-hinay sa kakulangon sa tubig sa atong dapit sa dakbayan napangitaan ug paagi,” (I am thankful to God that the solution on the lack of water supply has finally arrived in this part of the city.), Uy said. (Uriel Quilinguing)

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