A SMALL farming community in Gamu, Isabela, now enjoys the benefit of having potable water courtesy of a P50,000 project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Called community-managed potable-water supply, sanitation and hygiene (CPWASH), the project was turned over to the members of the Barbueda Development Cooperative in Gamu, Isabela, recently.
Gamu Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer (MARPO) Marirose T. Camonayan said a total of 915 families in Gamu Agrarian Reform Community Cluster, particularly in Barangay Buenavista, where Barbuedadeco operates, would benefit from this project.
Selected members of the organization had undergone a nine-day on-site hands-on training
for the proper construction and management of the CPWASH project, which will serve as their livelihood enterprise.
The low-cost water-supply technologies project of the DAR aims to promote health care to project beneficiaries with no access to potable water using available resources.
The project, which is composed of a biogas digester, iron-removal filters and biosand filters, is supported by the local government of Gamu.
Biosand filter is a low-cost water-supply technology and sanitation system designed for potable-water supply for agrarian-reform beneficiaries, their families and the community.
Biogas digester is a sanitation facility that produces methane gas from livestock manure and human waste and converts them to liquefied petroleum gas for cooking.
Alma D. Bueno, CPWASH provincial point person, said Barbuedadeco is the fourth recipient of the project in the province, and an increasing number of municipalities have expressed their desire to avail themselves of the technology in their respective areas.
Besides Barbuedadeco, Bueno said there are two organizations in the municipalities of Ramon and Benito Soliven, Isabela which will benefit from similar project this year.