AN AFRICAN proverb wisely put it: “Filthy water cannot be washed.” Indeed, of all things we cannot wash, it is water. Once it’s dirty, there’s no washing it. And that’s exactly what happened in Arpili, Balamban, last February. The Department of Health Field Office 7 confirmed at least 24 cases of typhoid. And the culprit seemed to be the drinking water coming from the uncovered water collection pool common in the highlands of Cebu. During a research field work years ago, I had my time drinking water from uncovered sources in certain barangays in the south, having no other source of water in the area. For the World Health Organization (WHO), typhoid is a serious public health problem. Up to 33 million cases get documented each year, and 216,000 people die in endemic areas. And the Philippines belongs to countries “very endemic” with typhoid. A study in India reported last year in the Hepatobiliary Pancreatic and Intestinal Diseases found reasons that typhoid-causative agent Salmonel
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