5,700 people benefited from potable water system projects

GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has completed the construction of potable water system projects in remote villages in Central Mindanao, benefiting some 5,700 underprivileged families.

Bai Zorahayda T. Taha, DSWD-12 regional director, said the projects which cost some P16.5 million had provided community-owned water system projects in remotes villages of Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and North Cotabato provinces.

“The newly completed water system projects have put an end to the suffering of thousands families who had to walk through terrains and slopes just to collect water or digging unsafe wells that usually run dry during hot season,” Taha said.

Taha said Sultan Kudarat province has completed P10.17 million worth of water system projects in ten barangays, with the biggest number of beneficiaries in the region, providing safe drinking water to at least 3,901 households.

Among the communities who benefited are remote villages of Langgal, Tinalon, Kuden, Tacupis, Lagubang in Senator Ninoy Aquino, Eday, Libertad, Sinapulan, Kudanding and Bual in Isulan.

The perennial problem of potable water experienced by some 1,509 from the villages of Maligang, Kapate and Kayupo in Kiamba town and 120 families in Alkikan, Malungon, Sarangani, are now thing of the past with the construction of potable water system projects.

Local residents before used to collect water from contaminated open dug wells and springs. The project cost for Sarangani province has reached P5.35 million.

Some 167 families in Grebona’s village in Libungan, North Cotabato have been recipient of the water system project worth P782 thousand.

“With these projects, we are hoping that they will contribute to the upliftment of the standard of living of project beneficiaries, since they now have more time to engage in income-generating activities rather than to collect water,” Taha said.

Financed by World Bank, the projects were constructed through the agency’s community-driven development program, Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), with 30% of the total cost came from local community counterpart. (Hilbert T. Estacion, Regional Social Marketing Officer, DSWD-12)