The Philippine Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on access to safe water supply and access to sanitary toilet facility is to ensure that, by 2015, 86.8 percent of the families in the country will have access to safe water supply and 83.8 percent will have access to sanitary toilet facility.

Access to safe water supply and sanitary toilet facility are essential to good health, clean environment, growth and development. Safe water supply and good sanitation can prevent common waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, etc.

According to the results of the 2011 Annual Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS), which covered around 51,000 sample households nationwide, 16 percent of families in Eastern Visayas experienced hunger in the three months prior to the conduct of the survey in July 2011. The survey also revealed that at least one in ten families in SOCCSKSARGEN (13.0%), Caraga (11.7%), and Northern Mindanao (10.1%) experienced hunger during the same period (Table 1). In the survey, families who experienced hunger refer to those who answered “Yes” to the survey question, “During the past three months, did you or any member of your family experienced hunger because you did not have money to buy food?”.