In celebration of World Water Day, Save the Children, together with local government and humanitarian organizations, urges the public to act upon urgent water and sanitation issues in 'Yolanda'-hit areas. Despite achievements in providing safe water, interventions aimed at improving access to toilets continues to lag behind, the water, sanitation and hygiene or 'WASH' cluster warns. This is the coordinating body responsible for addressing water and sanitation in typhoon-affected communities.
"Simply tackling the water system issue is like dressing a wound without removing the bullet; water systems are only part of the equation, the other part is sanitation.", says Wayne Chang, Save the Children's Infrastructure Consultant for the agency's 'Typhoon Yolanda' response.
"Save the Children has done rapid assessments in over 100 barangays across seven municipalities in Leyte, and found that many communities are dependent on community-level water supply systems. In a place where more than 60 percent of the population do not have access to proper toilets, open defecation is common practice. As water pipelines are usually running downhill, they are very susceptible to contamination due to damaged pipe connections. ", he added.
Improved access to toilets, along with solid waste and water resource management, is important to protect water sources, eliminate open defecation, and prevent the spread of diarrheal diseases and to protect the dignity of families. Save the Children recognizes, however, that repairing damaged pipelines and building toilets alone may not fully address water and sanitation problems. Without proper consultation with and full involvement of the community, these projects may not succeed in the long-term.
Save the Children is working closely with the local government, the Department of Health and humanitarian organizations in restoring water supply systems to provide clean water; engaging schools in hygiene promotion sessions and training communities in reconstructing their toilets.
As part of the World Water Day celebration and to raise awareness of these issues, Save the Children took part in the 'Walk for Water' Torch Parade and 'Coastal Clean-Up' in Tacloban. Some 500 volunteers joined the coastal clean-up near Tacloban City Astrodome.
Lorencio Lagarto, 50, one of the volunteers explained why he joined the activity: "I believe that it is crucial that everybody—all residents from different parts of the province along with the concerned organizations working here—work together to ensure the fast recovery of our typhoon-hit province."
In Panay, Save the Children marked the day by handing over a restored water system to the municipality of Sara after a 3-month rehabilitation. The water facility will benefit 5600 families in 14 barangays in the municipality.
ENDS
Save the Children is an international non-governmental organisation working in 120 countries. In the Philippines, Save the Children has been implementing programs for over 30 years in the areas of education, child protection, health and nutrition and child rights governance in both development and humanitarian settings. Save the Children was one of the first organizations to pre-deploy its team during the Typhoon Yolanda to immediately assess and respond to the needs of children and their families. Our 3-year strategy for Typhoon Yolanda plans to reach 1.1 M people including more than 800,000 children in our comprehensive relief, early recovery and rehabilitation projects.
In any emergency situation, Save the Children aims to respond to the critical needs of children and families inside and outside of evacuation centres, addressing concerns related to relief, child protection, education, health and nutrition including clean water supplies, sanitation, food security, and shelter.
For interviews with our spokesperson, contact April Sumaylo, Media Manager, Save the Children-Philippines thru: april.sumaylo@savethechildren.org or +6309057487684