By Wilma Bargamento
Water is a one of the basic essential needs of man. One in ten people do not have access to clean, safe drinking water. Fifty-percent of hospital beds on earth are occupied by people with easily preventable waterborne diseases. One thousand children die every day from water-related illnesses according to study.
Luckily, one public school in the south of Cebu named, Old Bucao Elementary School in Toledo City, acquired water filtration system. It is one of the recipient schools in Toledo City who qualified to get support from Planet Water Foundation a non-profit organization.
The school has its own available source of water but it is contaminated and not safe for drinking. The foundation provides water filtration systems that remove contaminants and make water safe and clean.
The foundation combines clean water access solutions with water-health and hygiene education. This is to help create behavior change, knowledge, and beliefs of water health and hygiene in school, home and communities.
The clean water project of the group also focus on sustainability by providing a thorough system training to the school custodians and staff at time of deployment efforts to ensure system maintenance can be easily completed by local stakeholders.
The water filter system amounted to 700k has benefited hundreds of students in the school community.
The school was also thankful to Xylem Incorporated and Carmen Copper Corporation for the support and assistance.