WHILE there is a 90-percent coverage of the metropolis for potable water supply, barely 10 percent of the area is covered by sewerage service. This worries the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), not to say environmentalists.

Neda Acting Director General Augusto Santos said the government is now strongly urging water concessionaires Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. to expand their sewerage coverage. He also expressed the government aim to also get some action nationwide.

Santos said, “There is a need to increase sewerage coverage in the Philippines because it is very low. There are a lot of health benefits that will be obtained if we double our sewerage coverage, at least in Metro Manila.” 

Santos said the government understands that increasing sewerage coverage will be a costly move, but seeing that doubling the sewerage services “will significantly contribute to improving health,” the government is determined to push for such expansion.

Earlier, a World Bank study revealed economic losses due to poor sanitation cost the Philippines $1.4 billion annually. In a survey of neighbor countries, it placed per capita losses at $9.30 in Vietnam, $16.80 in the Philippines, $28.60 in Indonesia and $32.40 in Cambodia.

“Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines lose an estimated $9 billion a year because of poor sanitation [based on 2005 prices]. That is approximately 2 percent of their combined gross domestic product [GDP], varying from 1.3 percent in the Philippines and Vietnam, to 2.3 percent in Indonesia and 7.2 percent in Cambodia.”

The report estimated the country’s biggest economic loss is in health, which it estimates at $1.01 billion a year; followed by losses in water services of $323 million; tourism, $40.1 million; and others, $37.6 million.

Poor sanitation, including hygiene, the report stated, causes at least 180 million disease episodes and 100,000 premature deaths annually in the region surveyed.

“Poor sanitation, through its important implications for child nutritional status, is associated with higher rates of acute lower respiratory infection [est. at over 2 million cases] and malaria, as well as increased mortality from a range of childhood diseases,” the report stated.

Poor sanitation is also indirectly connected with low weight-for-age, of which 36 percent of children under 5 in Cambodia are affected, 28 percent in Indonesia and the Philippines, and 22 percent in Vietnam.

Solons hit watering down of meds bill

THE principal author of the House version of the cheaper medicines bill on Thursday lamented what he described as the “drastic weakening” of the measure with the removal of the provision on the drug-price regulatory board apart from the “generics- only” provision of the original bill.

WHILE there is a 90-percent coverage of the metropolis for potable water supply, barely 10 percent of the area is covered by sewerage service. This worries the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), not to say environmentalists.

AFTER starting to dismantle illegal fish cages at Laguna de Bay, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is now faced with the bigger challenge of relocating some 50,000 squatters to rehabilitate the lake.

LIKE a scene in some romantic classic, a National Food Authority (NFA) laborer approached a woman in here early 20s, whose halter blouse emphasized the soft tone of her exposed shoulder, and offered to hand her coupon to the security guard manning the rationing of the three-kilo pack of government rice.

THE chief of the Metro Manila police on Thursday ordered a thorough investigation into the death of two passersby during a shootout between members of the Manila Police and alleged robbery gang members in Tondo, Manila, on Wednesday.

CELL-SITE attacks by lawless elements have lessened considerably, Globe Telecom said.

Company president Gerardo Ablaza has said that Globe continues to seek assistance from the police and the military to stop rampant assaults against its cell sites.

THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) launched on Thursday two major locally developed technological innovations which crack down on car smuggling and carjacking as well as strengthen environmental protection.