MEMBERS of the Macatin-ao Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) are now benefiting from the community-managed potable water supply sanitation and hygiene (CPWASH) project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Lanao del Norte Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer Alibasa Andig said with the CPWASH project, members of the Macatin-ao ARC can now enjoy clean and safe drinking water. The Macatin-ao ARC is composed of farmers in Barangay Maliwanag, Baroy town. The project is made up of two rainwater collectors, three iron removal filters, four bio-sand filters and one biogas digester. There are about 200 households in the ARC, and about 132 families are identified as agrarian-reform beneficiaries.
The DAR-Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries’ Development (BARBD) office reported that the Macatin-ao ARC is the 40th recipient of the CPWASH project, which the department is promoting to provide far-flung villages with low-cost supply of potable water.
Part and parcel of the project is the biogas digester, a sanitation facility that is capable of converting animal and human waste into cooking gas similar to the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)—an end-product that is viewed as a come-on for villagers to put up their own toilets with the digester serving as septic tank.
Besides the Macantin-ao ARC, BARBD said 45 rainwater collectors, 289 iron removal filters, 282 bio-sand filters and 131 biogas digesters have already been established in 39 ARCs nationwide.
Under the CPWASH project, villagers are hired as project construction workers, giving them hands-on training which they could use in putting up similar projects in their village and nearby communities, thus, providing them employment and business opportunity.
CPWASH was conceptualized by the DAR to install low-cost water supply technology and sanitation systems for safe, clean and potable water supply for farmers and their families in the community.
Jonathan L. Mayuga
In Photo: Tarsiers were found in Dinagat Island.