Sanitation Awareness and Infrastructure Gaps Among 435 Rural Households in Camarines Sur, Philippines

Abstract

Background: Rural sanitation outcomes depend on household knowledge, access to functional facilities, and reliable municipal services. Barangay Guinaban is an adopted community of Mariners’ Polytechnic Colleges Foundation of Canaman (Cam Sur), Inc. This partnership motivated the original sanitation assessment to establish a baseline for community extension planning. Objective: To characterize sanitation awareness, toilet facilities, and waste-management services in Barangay Guinaban, Camarines Sur, Philippines. Methods: A descriptive secondary analysis was conducted using aggregate survey tables from a 2026 master’s thesis covering 435 households. Four self-reported awareness indicators and distributions of toilet types, disposal methods, collection frequency, and segregation were extracted. Percentages were recalculated from published counts; respondent-level associations were not estimated. Results: Awareness of sanitation’s importance for disease prevention was reported by 432 of 435 respondents (99.3%), while 331 (76.1%) reported awareness of proper waste disposal. However, 103 households (23.7%) had no toilet facility and 34 (7.8%) reported open-pit latrines. Municipal collection was identified as the primary disposal route by 329 households (75.6%); 59 (13.6%) relied on burning and 22 (5.1%) on open dumping. Although 361 (83.0%) reported always segregating waste, 81 (18.6%) reported never receiving collection services. The differing totals for primary disposal route and collection frequency require clarification against the original questionnaire. Conclusion: High community-level awareness coexisted with substantial gaps in sanitation facilities and reported waste services. These results can inform Mariners’ extension planning and coordination with local service providers, but cannot establish individual awareness–practice associations, sanitation-related disease effects, or causal mechanisms.