DIARRHEA OUTBREAK AFTERMATH: MAYOR CREATES TASK FORCE TO CHECK ON SAFETY OF WATER DELIVERY BUSINESSES
BAGUIO CITY – If there is one good thing that came out of the diarrhea outbreak, it would be the prospect of having more stringent regulations to ensure safe water for the city’s constituents.
A day after declaring the diarrhea outbreak over on Jan. 18, 2024, Mayor Benjamin Magalong directed the creation of a “Safe Drinking Water Task Force” to implement immediate measures to address the source of contamination which is the unsafe water coming from deep wells and bulk water delivery companies.
“We are now officially out of the woods and now shifting to the endemic phase where diarrhea cases are back to normal rate. As such, we will not focus on the ways forward which include the adoption of stringent measures to ensure that the water delivery sector will become highly compliant with the health standards,” the mayor told the Ugnayan Panlungsod press briefing on Jan. 18.
During the post-outbreak meeting on Jan. 19, immediate measures were identified including the regular conduct of random water sampling of all water delivery companies as well as the inspection of their facilities — storage, delivery trucks, and hose, among others, and the imposition of the requirement of these companies to maintain ledgers of their clients.
Regular engagements with the owners of water companies will also be done starting with a consultation meeting scheduled on Jan. 20, 2024, to get inputs on their operations and on how to improve their safety protocols.
Based on the results of the epidemiological investigations conducted by the Baguio City Health Services Office and the Dept. of Health Epidemiology Bureau, the probable cause of the widespread diarrhea cases in the city from Dec. 26, 2023, to Jan. 8, 2024, was norovirus but without ruling out bacterial causes as test results remain pending as of press time.
The probable source or “chains of transmission” identified were contaminated water from private deep wells and bulk water delivery companies.
Water delivery companies with positive findings had already been ordered to cease operations and undertake intensive clean-up disinfection and retesting before re-operating.
The mayor, however, said the city is looking into imposing sanctions against them. “We will investigate the liability and culpability of these companies,” he said.
To guide the public, the city will also publish the list of accredited water delivery companies as a safeguard against the colorum and untested ones.
Efforts will be pooled for the improvement of the water regulation section of the City Environment Code the adoption of a Safe Water Ordinance and the strengthening of the existing committees relating to water regulations.
The diarrhea outbreak was declared on Jan. 10, 2024, after a surge in cases started on Dec. 26, and peaked on Jan 1-7.
After safety measures were adopted by the city, the downtrend in cases which started on Jan. 8 was sustained with an 80 percent decrease or from a total of 1,620 cases to just 300 cases in the past seven days (Jan. 11-18). – Aileen P. Refuerzo
