Puerto Princesa City holds Sanitation Expo

On November 21, 2018, the Puerto Princesa City’s City Health Office organized the Sanitation Expo 2018 to celebrate the city’s efforts in barangays toward Zero Open Defecation (ZOD). Twenty-four (24) barangays covering 9,064 households or 38,784 individuals have been declared as ZOD areas, which exhibited behavior change and engagement in the process of decision-making for better sanitation practices in collaboration with Sea Oil Foundation and Single Drop for Consultancy Services. During the expo, the city also reported other local initiatives such as the water, sanitation and hygiene campaign in schools, Oplan Linis, Solid Waste Management, Control of Diarrheal Diseases, desludging services from the City Engineering Office, the Clean Air Management Program, and the joint venture project on sewerage and septage. The city government also reported the development of the Local Sustainable Sanitation Plan in collaboration with USAID’s Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) Project, and the use of the KOBO Tool, an open source suite of tools for data collection and analysis. City Councilor Roy Gregorio Ventura expressed his gratitude to partners including USAID/SURGE in helping the city achieve sufficient, safe, acceptable, physical accessible and affordable sanitation for all.