Proposed ordinance to safeguard water in vending machines
A proposed ordinance has been filed in the Mandaue City Council setting sanitation standards for coin-operated water vending machines that have proliferated in the city.
Councilor Emmarie Ouano-Dizon is pushing for the approval of the Mandaue Water Sanitation Standards of 2013 to regulate for sanitation purposes automated water vending along roadsides and sari-sari stores. These machines known as ATMs or automated tubig machines dispense water after a customer drops one peso coin in the coin slot.
The said ordinance, which passed first reading in Sanguniang Panlungsod weekly session yesterday afternoon, mandates water establishments to follow sanitation standards and business permits to operate water vending machines.
The ordinance is in compliance to the Philippine National Standards for Drinking Water and the Provisions as provided by Presidential Decree 856, also known as the Code of Sanitation of the Philippines, said Ouano-Dizon.
She said, the local government unit needs to closely monitor these water vending machines which have become lucrative to prevent the spread of water-borne diseased.
“Tight measures should be enforced to protect at all cost the city’s water supply, most especially the water for human consumption. The intention of the ordinance aims to eliminate all possible risk factors and dangers associated with the water-borne related diseases,” she explained.
Ouano-Dizon said that the water supply of refilling stations need to be tested and certified as sanitary before it is deployed in remote locations around the city.
“Naay bacterias man gud ani nga mabuhi kung ma stock ug labi na mainitan mao dapat ma undergo ni sila ug necessary tests,” she said.
(Bacteria can proliferate especially if the water is stocked for a long time and exposed to heat, so it is necessary to have the water tested.)
Ouano-Dizon added, “there are widespread reports, in neighboring cities and municipalities that dreaded water-borne diseases are traced to contaminated drinking water.”
The lady councilor is also batting for the rehabilitation of old and defective water pipes around the city to prevent infiltration of pollutants likes bacteria. She is batting for a thorough inspection of the city's network of pipelines. /Jucell Marie P. Cuyos, Reporter