SAFER DRINKING WATER. All businesses related to water delivery, refilling, transport and supply, as well as water testing laboratories, are now required to submit results of the water examination within 24 hours from its release. This, after the Baguio City Council approved on Monday (Aug. 12, 2024) an ordinance amending a 2017 measure prescribing rules for the operation of mineral and purified water stations to prevent another diarrhea outbreak. (PNA file photo by Liza T. Agoot)
BAGUIO CITY – Businesses offering water to its clients as well as testing centers are now required to submit results of laboratory tests to ensure the public’s safety and prevent a repeat of the diarrhea outbreak in the first quarter of 2024.
An ordinance amending the provisions of Ordinance No. 41, series of 2007, and authored by Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, was approved by the Baguio City Council on Monday to ensure the potability and safety of drinking water and that the water from other sources in the city conform with the standards set by the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water (PNSDW).
“The health of the people in the city is the paramount priority,” Tabanda said in an interview.
PNSDW is a Department of Health-Food and Drugs Administration (DOH-FDA) Administrative Order issued in 2017 that prescribes the standards of potable water.
The amendment mandates private and government water testing laboratories or facilities operating in the city and in other areas outside the city but catering to the city’s drinking water-refilling stations to also submit to the City Health Services Office (CHSO) within 24 hours from issuance of the certified bacteriological and physio-chemical water tests with positive or unsatisfactory results.
Based on the ordinance, the CHSO, upon receipt of the certified positive or unsatisfactory results, shall order the immediate closure and cessation of operation of the concerned water station or facility as corrective measures are initiated.
Among those covered by the ordinance are government and private water service providers, bulk water suppliers, water refilling station operators and water vending machine operators, ice manufacturers, all food establishments, residential, commercial and industrial and institutional buildings that use, support or serve drinking water; water testing laboratories; health and sanitation authorities, the general public and all others who are involved in determining the safety of the public’s drinking water.
A diarrhea outbreak occurred here in the first quarter this year, traced by experts to supply sourced from unregistered deep wells and water distributors. (PNA)
