Tuburan closely monitors anti-typhoid chlorinators

THE Tuburan municipal government is closely monitoring its water system after a typhoid outbreak that killed five and downed more than 800 people hit the town last month.

Tuburan Vice Mayor Dominador Pesiao Jr. said the engineering department assured them that the chlorinators of the Tuburan Waterworks System are properly functioning.

The lack of chlorinators of the town’s water system was blamed for the outbreak. The water system provides level 3 water service to the residents.

But Mayor Aljun Diamante in earlier interviews admitted that they only installed the chlorinators after residents showed symptoms of typhoid fever in late February.

The mayor earlier said the local government would use the P10-million grant from the government’s Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) to improve the town’s 60-year-old waterworks system.

At least P8 million was spent by the Cebu provincial government to expand and rehabilitate the level 3 waterworks system in 2008 based on records of the Provincial Planning and Development Office.

The Tuburan outbreak was described to be the worst in Central Visayas in recent years.

In early 2010, a typhoid outbreak was also declared in Alegria after their cases reached 600./Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus