THE Philippines has made strides in preventing unhygienic practices, but it needs to invest more in sanitation, such as toilets, to prevent diseases from spreading.

In an interview for the online show "The Manila Times Roundtable" with Times Chairman Dante Francis Ang II, United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) chief of climate, environment and disaster resilience for the Philippines Carlos Vasquez said there should be continued awareness about unhygienic practices like open defecation that would kickstart demand for additional toilets.

Vasquez said that while the country has made strides in preventing this, 3 percent of the population still practice open defecation in bushes, which could lead to diseases such as cholera, typhoid and other water-borne diseases.

"There are almost 20 million people without access to toilets, and those 20 million people have health issues," Vasquez said.

He said that a specific group of this population was unaware of information regarding sanitation and took this information for granted.

"We need to create awareness; once you create the awareness, you kickstart the demand, as once they know practicing open defecation is not good for them and their future and their children's future, and now they want a toilet, now you have activated the demand, and once you have demand, you will have different ways of meeting that demand," Vasquez said.

Among those ways to address the issues of unsanitary practices is the use of output-based blended financing where households will get a grant from the government and will also take out loans and use these to construct latrines or toilets.

"That is a good example of poor people getting [a] toilet in their house," Vasquez noted.

The scheme was first tested in Samar, Vasquez noted in a subsequent interview with the Times, where 200 households benefited from the scheme, where Unicef gave a P5,000 loan to these households in addition to the P20,000 given by the provincial government to allow them to build their own toilets or latrines.

The rate of repayment, Vasquez said, was at 99 percent, meaning that poor people were taking loans to fulfill their human right to have access to sanitation.

Vasquez said that the scheme worked as the Samar governor was a "firm believer" in close collaboration between nutrition and sanitation.

"One of her decisions last year was not going to fund, or approve, any municipal plan that does not show any plan of nutrition or sanitation," Vasquez said.

He also said that the province of Iloilo also implemented a zero-open-defecation plan that was proposed by Unicef five years ago and remains the only province in the country with zero-open-defecation. Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA Carlos Vasquez, Unicef Philippines' chief of climate, environment, and resilience, is interviewed by The Manila Times' Chairman and CEO, Dante 'Klink' Ang 2nd, during a roundtable on water and sanitation at the TMT Newsroom in Intramuros, Manila, on Aug. 15, 2024. PHOTOS BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

Vasquez said the challenge now was how to present this kind of financing model for sanitation but would discuss it in a more "sensitive and appealing" way.

"Imagine if we had an app for the phone like sanitation, and you open that app, and everything you need is there: financing, policy, technical drawing, people that can fix your toilet. Everything is here and be part of the process, and somebody would be making a profit," Vasquez said.