Promoting Sustainable Sanitation in Zamboanga del Norte

2.1 billion of the world’s urban population use non-piped (non-sewered) sanitation technologies such as latrines, cesspools, septic tanks, or aqua privies to capture and contain their excreta (fecal matter and urine). These types of sanitation “solutions” tend to be unsustainable and often fail to provide public health benefits. The consequences for the poor are profound: an estimated 1.6 million children die each year from diarrheal disease caused by fecal-oral contamination. Waters are contaminated with sewage and excreta, and a pathogenic fecal film coats communities and land, particularly in urban areas (Bill and Melinda Gates:2011).

The situation is the same in the rural areas where sanitation technology is pour-flush and the use of septic tanks or if without it, the use of open-pit latrines which are breeding grounds of flies and diseases.

In the Philippines, 30 percent of the population defecates in the open and has no access to toilets either because they cannot build one, they have no space and or there is no water available as in the case of very compressed coastal habitations.

This situation leads to the following problems;

a.       29 million people defecate in the open thereby spreading diseases and parasites such as roundworms.

b.      These open defecation leads to deaths especially of children estimated at 300,000 children per year.

c.       Human waste flushed to the coastal areas or rivers are sources of e. coli and a host of other pathogens.

Meanwhile an allied concern is the severe land degradation and lack of fertilizer in the rural areas. Loss of soil fertility especially phosphorus is slow but dramatic and global. Commercial fertilizer uses a lot of fossil fuel to produce and is difficult to purchase especially for people earning less than a dollar a day, numbering 57 M Filipinos. This leads to a cycle of poverty and malnutrition and powerlessness.

Still another problem is the scarcity of water in both urban and rural areas due to a multiplicity of factors such as the El Nino phenomenon, loss of water in the aquifers, severe erosion and loss of trees that holds water, among host of factors. Using dry toilets will help solve this and save a lot of water that can instead be used for health and general hygiene.

Because of this, the ABCDE Foundation is promoting low-cost sustainable sanitation initiative in Zamboanga del Norte. The sanitation system comprise low-cost and robust pour-flush toilets, ecosan toilets and simple urinals.