The Department of Health – Cordillera (DOH-CAR) trained sanitary inspectors from the provinces of Ifugao and Kalinga on Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance, July 4-6, 2023.
The training aims to strengthen drinking water safety at the local government unit (LGU) level in the context of Presidential Decree 856 and the Local Government Code of 1991, requiring LGUs to establish a Local Drinking Water Surveillance Program to protect the consumers from waterborne-related diseases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cases and outbreaks of diarrhea attributed to contaminated drinking water supply is indicative of inadequate and/or absence of well-established drinking water quality surveillance and monitoring programs.
Sanitary Engineer Julius Solano guided the participants in crafting a Local Drinking Water Quality Surveillance Program based on the health and interior and local government departments’ DOH-DILG manual of operations that will be part of the annual operations plan by their respective local health offices. He highlighted the importance of creating a Local Drinking Water Quality Monitoring Committee (LDWQMC) that will carry out the monitoring and surveillance activities in the locality.
General procedures for water sample collection, handling, storage, testing, and interpretation of water analysis results were also discussed. Participants collected water from various sources of Brgy. Nangalisan and Brgy. San Pascual in Tuba, Benguet. The collected samples were tested to determine the presence and absence of Total coliform and E. coli.
This is the fourth batch of the training, having previously been conducted for Apayao and Mountain Province in September 2022 and Baguio-Benguet last June 2023. By DOH-CAR
