All the Days of March

March 2019 is a period of observance, tackling, and engaging into issues that impact public health and safety. This month is dedicated not only to women all over the world in observance of the International Women’s Month and the International Women’s Day that was celebrated on March 8; March 1 to 31 is also the Fire Prevention Month; March 24 is the World TB (Tuberculosis) Day; and March 22 is the United Nations International World Water Day. March has also established this year’s season of Lent – Ash Wednesday (March 6).

March, my mother and daughter’s birth month, gives me the opportunity to write about recent public health issues and concerns. The first of my “March articles” is about water. Before I bore you, let’s lighten up on a little trivia.

The Ides of March (source: WIKIPEDIA)

The Ides of March was a day in the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March. It was marked by several religious observances and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar that made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.

Water – the most basic of all commodities

Imagine planet earth without water. It could mean the end of civilization because “water is life.”

To me the most disturbing and appalling public problem that barangays in east of Manila and parts of Rizal has been experiencing for a considerable number of weeks and up to this press time, is the “water shortage” or the “total lack of it.” Whether this maybe is due to some natural phenomenon, such as El Niño, or something that is man-made is not the concern of this article. I simply would like to impress about health problems that might arise due to unsafe water and the lack of potable drinking water.

Issue No. 1 -- Public health hazards due to lack of safe and potable drinking water

Globally, the most commonly occurring diseases transmitted through drinking of unsafe water are infectious hepatitis, cholera, bacillary dysentery, typhoid, intestinal parasitism, skin diseases, and bacterial infections, such as amebiasis and giardiasis. In other words, drinking unsafe water can bring about sickness, including diarrheal diseases, caused by virus, bacteria, fungus, and parasites.

Issue No. 2 – Sanitation and improper waste disposal

I really hope that the “Manila Bay Clean Up” program, that has now become a multi-sector venture, is not just some “ningas kugon” or “only good at the start.” Slums and other dense informal urban neighborhoods pose challenges for improving sanitation provision insofar as sewer systems are required. Waste and refuse of informal settlers pollute small water passageways that add up to contamination of our bigger bodies of water, including Pasig River, Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay.

(To be continued)