8.4 Million Filipinos still without access to clean drinking water
A joint report released this month from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef shows sobering numbers for safe drinking water access in the Philippines. According to the numbers released, 7.5 million Filipinos are without access to sanitary toilets, while 8.4 million do not have a supply of clean drinking water.
These numbers reflect our own sampling size in the large numbers of people impacted in the southern Philippines (Maguindanao) by lack of access to safe drinking water. Fortunately, our Global Associate’s commitment to bringing water wells back online to serve student and citizen populations in this area, continues to provide a successful model for restoring clean water to rural areas of the country.
Key to the WHO/Unicef report are the findings indicating the need for the “Department of Interior and Local Government to administer grassroots-identified water projects” under programs that have already proven to be successful. The very type of program referenced in their findings, is the ongoing clean water restoration project that Dr. Anayatin and her team have implemented and continue to expand upon to ensure that as many Mindanao school-age students as possible, have safe drinking water during the course of their day. You can view how we are accomplishing this together, by viewing our issues page here. And to see the actual schools and populations receiving new water pumps and clean water to their communities, view our interactive map here.
Above: students try out their new water pump at their school in Mindanao, Philippines. Photo Credit: Goldin Institute
