Nueva Vizcaya residents want Salintubig Project expanded
From the National Anti-Poverty Commission
As a mother of four children, I know how difficult it is to
maintain a household where potable water is not readily available,
said Mrs Elvira Gapuz, a resident of Barangay Villa Flores in Sta.
Fe, Nueva Vizcaya.
Gapuz and other residents of two municipalities of Nueva Vizcaya
are beneficiaries of the Salintubig Project.
A barangay treasurer, and a long-time resident of Sta. Fe, Nueva
Vizcaya, Gapuz wishes the project will be extended and expanded so
that more residents, not only in her province, but in other areas
in the country will have potable water available in their
homes.
The way to the stream is dark because we have no electricity; we
wait for daybreak to draw water from the stream, explained Gapuz,
adding that their restroom and batalan (kitchen) now have regular
supply of fresh water for household use.
Her husband teaches in a nearby public school. He is no longer
late for his class, unlike before when he needed to go to the
stream to fetch water every day for his family.
The municipalitys engineer, Dionisio Mijares Jr. said that 356
households directly benefited from the project, along with two
public elementary schools, a public market, their public park, the
municipal hall itself, and three barangay halls.
About P300 were reduced from the monthly household expenditure
of each family, Mijares added.
Several business establishments in the municipality reportedly
benefitted also from the continuous supply of clean and safe
potable water.
Meanwhile, five barangays of Dupax del Sur, Nueva VizcayaDopaj,
Domang, Bagumbayan, Balzain, and Sta Marial were also covered by
the Salintubig Project.
The projects most immediate result was the lesser time spent by
women and children in getting water from wells, and at a lesser
cost, according to Manuel Ignacio, Municipal Engineer in the local
government of Dupax.
Ignacio said the Salintubig Project improved the access of 1,050
households to potable water.
Access to potable water may be the most obvious and immediate
result of the project, but there were other benefits that reached
beyond the intended result.According to Ignacio, their water was
previously sourced from shallow wells, about nine meters deep,
which is prone to contamination.
The prevalence of water-borne diseases, like diarrhea, dropped
to zero percent because of available safe water supply to all
consumers, 24 hours every day. The most common cause of diarrhea is
infection of the intestines known as gastroenteritis. This is often
acquired from contaminated food or water, or directly from another
person who is infected.Salintubig or Sagana at Ligtas na Tubig sa
Lahat Program promotes shared responsibility in providing water
systems to waterless areas by awarding national government grants
to local government units, which in turn will give funding
counterpart.Salintubig is part of the 2013 government program,
under the Bottom-Up Budgeting process of the National Anti-Poverty
Commission (NAPC), the Department of Interior and Local Government
(DILG), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Local Water
Utilities Administration (LWUA).
It contributes to the attainment of one of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) of providing potable water to every
barangay, which is also stated in the Philippine Water Supply
Sector Roadmap and the Philippine Sustainable Sanitation
Roadmap.While Salintubig addressed the household needs for water,
the province of Nueva Vizcaya also recently resolved its almost
desperate need for water for agriculture.
The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) temporarily assumed
the responsibility of ensuring the flow of water from the
controversial Colocol Communal Irrigation System (CCIS) that will
benefit hundreds of farmers of the Bayombong-Solano-Villaverde
Federation of Irrigators Association(BSVFIA).
The CCIS operation started on February 15 to enable farmers to
sufficiently irrigate their farmlands before the cropping
season.
The agreement was reached during a dialogue between NIA
officials and irrigators associations of the Colocol Irrigators
Federation, Inc. (CIFI), Colocol Irrigators Multipurpose Coop, Inc.
(CIMPCI), and the Municipal Alliance of Solano Irrigators
Association (MASIA) at the NIA compound in the province, in an
effort to address the year-old conflict of farmers over the control
of irrigation water.
The insufficient flow of water has affected farmers plan to
attain the five-croppings-in-two-years program of the Department of
Agriculture (DA) for more than a year.
We will wait for the cleaning of the downstream canals,
especially Barangay San Nicolas in Bayombong town and Barangay
Bascaran in Solano town, said Roland Apaga, NIA assistant
irrigation officer.
About 6,000 farmers will benefit from this recent
development.
napc.gov.ph
