Government data show that more than 90% of the country's sewage is not collected or treated properly. (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2006) This raw sewage ends up in open water bodies contaminating our water sources. This is a concern even in highly urbanized cities. In Metro Manila, only 7% of the population has access to piped sewerage. (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2006). The reality is that many Filipinos who have toilets do not have septic tanks. If they do, these have open bottoms. Worse, septic tanks may not be regularly desludged; and if sludge is removed, treatment and disposal is still a concern. Access to at least 20 liters of clean water each day is the minimum requirement of having the right to water. "Not having access" to water and sanitation is a polite euphemism for a form of deprivation that threatens life, destroy opportunity and undermines human dignity. (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2006) Investing in water, sanitation, and hygiene is investing in health. Unclean water and poor sanitation have claimed more lives over the past century than any other cause. Water and sanitation are among the most powerful preventive medicines available to governments to reduce infectious disease. Investment in this area is to killer diseases like diarrhea what immunization is to measles—a life-saver. (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2006) Improved water supply, sanitation, water resource management address a number of health problems, including fatal diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, schistosomiasis, trachoma, intestinal helminths (Ascariasis, Trichuriasis, Hookworm disease), Japanese encephalitis, Hepatitis A, Arsenic, and Fluorosis.
[Ia] Proposal: Access to clean water “Lack of financing in the Philippine water sector remains one of the biggest constraints to achieving total service coverage in the country.� The World Bank estimates that PhP 93 billion is needed until 2025 for Filipinos to have access to clean water, i.e., to put up new Level III (household connection to water supply) facilities and upgrade Level II (communal water system) into Level III household connections from 2013-2025. The PhP 93 billion13 requirement is feasible considering that it accounts for only 10% of the entire budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). (Rappler, 2015 and Manila Times, 2014, citing a 2013 World Bank estimate) [Ib] Proposal: Sanitation Different government bodies have multiple initiatives to come up with a comprehensive sanitation plan but the Philippines still has not invested much on proper sewage collection and treatment. For instance, the National Sewerage and Septage Management Program allocation began in 2013, with a total budget of PhP5.6B as the 40% National Government subsidy spread until 2020. Aside from limiting the program to the 17 Highly Urbanized Cities and for sewerage projects only, the 2014 allocation of PhP300 million have not been downloaded to the local government units.
13
Costing estimates may change as the period gets adjusted
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