The report found that 27 million Filipinos do not have toilets and are at risk of ingesting human fecal material. A single gram of human waste can contain 10 million viruses, a million bacteria and a million parasite cysts, and once these enter the body they can cause bacterial infections such as dysentery, cholera, hepatitis A and typhoid.

The study went on to note that 13 million Filipinos do not have improved fresh water sources and only 3.3% of the households are connected to sewers leading to treatment facilities. Disturbingly, more than 95% of raw sewage in urban areas is deposited untreated into groundwater, canals and waterways, where it often contaminates drinking water supplies.