MORE VIGILANCE FOR WATER QUALITY

I was able to confirm that the DOH does have a list of accredited laboratories all over the country that are capable of testing the quality of water. However, the list is not updated because the latest list was posted 31 December 2020. Considering how important water quality is, for public safety, I think that the DOH should be updating the list either monthly or quarterly. On the upside, there is a national law that requires water refilling stations to have monthly microbial tests and also physico-chemical tests twice a year. That means that if you are buying bottled water from the refilling stations, you have to ask them to show their monthly test results, to make sure that they are following the law and that their water is safe. Also on the upside, the DOH does have very clear requirements for the accreditation of testing labs. It is relatively easy to comply with these requirements, but I hear that the DOH is becoming stricter in the implementation, the fact that they have a special unit that is dedicated to their accreditation function. Still on the upside, both Maynilad and Manila Water have current projects involving third party DOH accredited labs to monitor their own water quality on top of their own inhouse monitoring. This redundancy is good already, but it would be good if the LGUs would also have their own monitoring so that we can all trust that our water is safe. IKE SENERES/1-5-2024