MANDALUYOMG CITY -- According to the 2020 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) of the Philippines Statistics Authority, 20 percent of Filipino families either have limited and shared toilet facilities or practice open defecation.

Today, November 19, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) is joining the United Nations World Toilet Day 2022 campaign, called "Making the Invisible Visible" with the theme “Sanitation and Groundwater”. The campaign focuses on the impact of inadequate sanitation systems on underground water resources.

PRC has long been providing hygiene promotion and building sanitation facilities in schools and vulnerable communities. This year, PRC provided hygiene promotion activities to 166, 430 individuals across the country. PRC chapters and RC143 volunteers facilitate information dissemination on the importance of practicing personal hygiene, proper food handling, and proper toilet use and maintenance.

The foremost humanitarian organization is committed to promoting the importance of adequate and safely managed sanitation facilities to prevent the transmission of sanitation-related diseases such as cholera and diarrhea in communities, which often occur in times of disaster and emergency.

Safe sanitation protects groundwater. Toilets placed and connected to safely managed sanitation systems help prevent human waste from spreading into groundwater. (Philippine Red Cross )