The City Health Office has called on the barangay officials to help monitor the sanitary conditions of water refilling stations in their respective villages, especially this time when the city is experiencing scarcity of water supply due to the El Niño-driven dry season.

Dr. Dulce Amor Miravite sounded off the call during the “El Niño, La Niña Summit” organized by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office last April 23-24 at the Royce Convention Center, Grand Astoria Hotel.

She said Zamboanga City is vulnerable to extreme weather conditions like El Niño and La Niña due to its geographical locations and several reasons, and the last time the city had experienced El Niño was in April-May 2016.

Miravite recalled that during the 2016 El Niño, Zamboanga City suffered from a rotavirus attack on water sources resulting in diarrheal outbreak specifically linked to water refilling stations.

According to her, since there was very limited or no water at all from the faucets at the time, people had to buy drinking water from the refilling stations, not knowing that these water outlets had also experienced the same water shortage, and their water sources were at high risk of contamination, thus the rotavirus outbreak.

At the time, the CHO recorded a total of 3,870 diarrhea cases with 19 deaths due to contaminated water from the refilling stations, according to Dr. Miravite.

Hence, she echoed an appeal to all barangay officials in the city to help CHO in monitoring the sanitary conditions of water refilling stations in their communities even as she assured that this time the sanitary inspectors have been regularly checking on the “potability” of water from the refilling stations.—(Vic Larato)