Ninety percent of Filipino households have their own toilets, the Fourth Quarter 2019 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey has found out.
SWS said that this focus is important because it calls for action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: Water and Sanitation for all by 2030.
As part of its monitoring of the Filipinos' quality of life, SWS regularly assesses respondent households' water and sanitation status based on the type of toilet they own or access and just last week, the World Toilet Day was celebrated.
The Fourth Quarter 2019 Social Weather Survey, conducted from Dec. 13 to 16, 2019 among 1,200 respondents, found outthat 90 percent of Filipino households have their own toilets, consisting of 88 percent with toilets solely for their own use, and two percent with access to both own toilets and toilets shared with other households.
Six percent of households have access to shared toilets only, while four percent have no toilet access.
The survey also found that 82 percent of households have pour-flush toilets or “de buhos,” seven percent have flush toilets, and two percent have other toilet types.
SWS also found out that large majorities of households in all areas have their own toilets (percentage with own toilets and percentage with both own and shared toilets). The percentage is highest in Metro Manila at 93 percent, followed by Balance Luzon at 92 percent, the Visayas at 88 percent, and Mindanao at 88 percent.
Meanwhile, across basic demographics, pour-flush or de buhos is the most common type of toilet owned by households, followed distantly by flush toilets and others.
By area, the percentage of households with pour-flush toilets is highest in Metro Manila at 85 percent, followed by Balance Luzon at 83 percent, the Visayas at 82 percent, and Mindanao at 77 percent.
Urban and rural areas do not vary in terms of the type of toilet owned by households.
The Fourth Quarter 2019 Social Weather Survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults 18-years-old and above nationwide.