Legal Issues in Air Pollution

The Philippines has established scenes or industrial estates that are group of companies that
are not heavy Industries (not major polluters) that have their environmental units that enforce
environmental laws on control of air and water pollution, and disposal of solid waste and hazardous
waste Road safety, crashes, ambient air pollution, and noise are the issues pertinent to the transport
sector in the Philippines. Although public/mass transport are established such as the LRT and MRT
trains, buses and jeepneys, there are still too many vehicles on the road causing traffic jams most of
the day. Buses and jeepneys often use second hand engines with inefficient combustion engines that
are the sources of ambient air pollution. Despite the law that requires passing of emission testing
prior to vehicle registration, it has not eliminated the so-called "smoke belchers" on the road since
around 70% of the vehicles still use diesel for fuel. The number of vehicles on the road is just
staggering for a small road network (4 million registered vehicles).

Surface and Ground Water Pollution

Diarrhea is still the number one cause of illness in the Philippines with less than a million cases
in 2001. Water-bome diseases are preventable through provision of adequate water supply systems
and sanitary facilities. Bottled water have been popular among households and establishment since
the drinking water from the tap is suspected not potable. There is not enough landfill space and the
Ecological Solid Waste Management Act has intensified solid waste disposal and recycling efforts.
Rural areas have less coverage. The Philippines has excellent water quality standards but weak in its
implementation. Out of 421 rivers, 50 were polluted and 40 were considered biologically dead. There
are very good water treatment facilities in Metro Manila but water districts in the provinces use only
chlorination or not at all depending on the water source. Since the Philippines is still predominantly an
agricultural country, there are large inputs of fertilizer and pesticides that might be released as part of
month contaminating water in 2002 21.020 meter About 6 casof pesticide powerpoint 2000 A 72.6
percent of total freshwater sreditionering 1,550,000 hectares of irrigated alland

Capacity for Monitoring Environmental Quality

Several government and private laboratories are equately equipped to monitor various
environmental quality parameters for drinkwater water resources, ambientair, noise and dat However,
most of the facilities are located in highly urbanized cities. The Environmental Management Bureau
has a fully equipped environmental laboratory Capacity for Data Collection and Processing to collect
and process environmental quality data but there is no system in There is some capacity within
various agencies of the government place for use of information for decision making and planning
especially for environmental health.

Proper Housing
Housing and the Homeless
There are building regulations in place with inspectors from local government units and labor
department. It is estimated that 30 percent of the population live below the poverty line, which could
indicate poor housing. There are government programs to provide social housing to qualified urban
households for the informal settlers, homeless and no income poor, which are the bottom 30 of the
population.

Other Environment Health Services

Electricity
As of 2003, about 37,748 barangays are supplied with electricity covering almost 90 percent of
the total population