CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, (PNA) — The city government here launched the barangay sanitation brigade (BSB) over the weekend with the aim to reduce the number of residents acquiring communicable diseases.
“Tuberculosis and dengue are two of the many communicable diseases we want to eradicate. The expected impact of this project is to reduce the number of Fernandinos who acquire these types of diseases,” said Dunn Patrick Imana, officer-in-charge of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Division (EHSD) of the City Health Office.
The concept of BSB is to encourage citizens to participate in community-based cleaning activities such as street-sweeping, de-clogging of canals and proper solid waste management.
“If we have cleaner surroundings, less number of communicable disease cases will be recorded,” Imana said.
Vladimir Pagcu, Sanitation Inspector 1, explained the role of EHSD in the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases.
All barangays are well-represented during the half-day orientation seminar for BSB volunteers.
City mayor Edwin D. Santiago also graced the event and thanked the 80 volunteers who are part of the project.
“You should be monitoring the cleanliness of your surroundings,” Santiago said as he encouraged participants to constantly inspect creeks and waterways in their barangays.
It can be noted that dengue cases in the City of San Fernando were reduced to 163 from the period of January to July compared to 550 in the same period last year.
Last week, cleaning, de-clogging and fogging operations were done in Barangay Dolores here.