BACOLOD CITY – Around 2,000 residents of Barangay Manlucahoc in Sipalay City would benefit from the Community-managed Potable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (CPWASH) project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed Wednesday by officials of DAR-Negros Occidental II, Sipalay City Government, and Manlucahoc Multi-Purpose Cooperative, the agency will allocate PHP80,000 as counterpart.
Of the anount, PHP50,000 will be used to purchase construction materials while the remaining PHP30,000 will cover the expenses for project-related technology trainings.
The DAR will also hire and train para-engineers who will help construct the facilities. The local government, meanwhile, allocated PHP50,000 for the labor requirement and livelihood project components.
Almost 50 percent of the 2,000 recipients of the potable water project are the students and teachers of various schools in the said barangay.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer I Enrique Paderes, who led the MOA signing at the office of the assisted farmers’ organization, urged the member-recipients to unite, protect, and conserve the support services they receive from various government agencies like the DAR.
Sipalay City Vice Mayor Lizares said the project is beneficial since it provides residents, especially students and teachers, the access to safe drinking water sources.
“It will also promote ecological sanitation through low-cost, culturally acceptable and appropriate technologies,” Lizares said, adding that the city government is also planning to replicate the project in other barangays. (PNA)