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 Vizcaya
Dopaj,
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 fivecroppings-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