Manila, March 11 -- The Department of Health (DOH) 5 (Bicol) is eyeing to increase the coverage of its Zero Open Defecation (ZOD) program in the region to 89 percent of households for 2025.

In an interview on Tuesday, Lea Angela Romero-Castillo, DOH-5 Environmental Health Regional Program Manager, said the ZOD program, a key strategy for enhancing rural sanitation development, aims to reach 1.25 million out of an estimated 1.4 million households in the region.

The ZOD program was initiated in 2015 and received further support through the issuance of Department Memorandum 2015-0021, which provides guidelines for the verification and certification of barangays as Zero Open Defecation.

In its latest report, the Field Health Services Infor...