The Northern Samar provincial government has extended PHP400,000 in cash incentives to two towns in the province for attaining zero open defecation (ZOD) status.

Governor Edwin Ongchuan led the turnover on Monday of PHP200,000 cash each to the local governments of San Roque and Catubig towns.

“We aim to promote environmental sanitation and contribute to a healthy citizenry in the province by giving incentives to ZOD-declared municipalities. Local governments undergo a stringent validation process before they are given ZOD status,” Ongchuan said in a statement.

The Department of Health (DOH) officially declared Catubig and San Roque towns with ZOD status in August and November of 2023, respectively, after they both passed the agency’s regional environmental and occupational health validation.

The provincial government said the ZOD status of both towns was achieved through the concerted efforts of their local chief executives, municipal health officers, assigned provincial sanitary inspectors and rural sanitary inspectors.

Mapanas, Bobon and Mondragon towns, all in Northern Samar, have achieved the ZOD status in 2022.

Under the ZOD campaign, the DOH is pushing that each household should have at least a basic toilet facility by 2025 to achieve universal health care.

As of 2019, only 11 percent of villages nationwide (4,625 out of 42,045) are certified ZOD, where people have abandoned the practice of open defecation, according to the DOH, and families have learned to use a toilet and wash their hands after use.

Open defecation is when human wastes are disposed of in fields, forests, bushes, open bodies of water, beaches and other open spaces.

Catubig is a third-class town with a population of 32,174, while Bobon is a fourth-class municipality with a population of 25,964. (PNA)