TACLOBAN CITY – Health authorities have urged mayors in Eastern Visayas to give priority to the delivery of safe water to stem waterborne diseases that have been plaguing many towns and cities in the region.

The sanitation division of the Department of Health-Eastern Visayas (DOH-8) office has monitored that poor access to safe water among households was the reason diarrhea ranks second among leading diseases in Eastern Visayas.

“That is why we are appealing to our local leaders to focus on providing safe water to our people to at least minimize, if not avoid, getting these waterborne diseases like diarrhea or typhoid fever,” said Alberto Rivera, division chief.

Waterborne diseases killed 483 people in the region in 2006 and downed 244,354 others, mostly children, with diarrhea, according to DOH-8 records for 2006.

Rivera said only 82 percent of the households had access to safe water. This means only 623,804 of the 760,411 households in the region at the time of the monitoring, Rivera said.

The DOH defines safe water as free from contamination of diseases and/or has undergone some chemical treatment.

Rivera said the most common sources of drinking water are open spring and shallow deep wells, which are prone to contamination by elements that become causes of waterborne diseases.

These sources had neither been given the mandatory maintenance nor undergone chemical treatment, he said.

Of the six provinces in the region, Northern Samar and Samar had the lowest in terms of safe water, with only 72,307 of its 109,576 households. Samar followed with 56,679 out of 84,212 households.

Out of Leyte’s 275,509 households, 238,609 have safe water.

Eastern Samar, which was badly hit by flooding in February, had 71,079 out of 80,643 households with safe water access. In Biliran, 98 percent of the households had access to safe water.