PEF inaugurates P700-T Water System Project in Tungawan

TUNGAWAN, Zamboanga Sibugay (July 29, 2010) – For Joel Mission, president of Little Margos Water and Sanitation Association (LIMAWASA), their new water system project is a “baby” to their community.

This was he described during the inauguration, blessing and turn-over ceremony of almost P700,000.00-worth water project held last July 29 at Barangay Little Margos, this town.

In his message, Mr. Mission rallied for support among his village-mates to help maintain the project so it would sustain to serve the community best. “As a ‘baby’, we have to assure that this project will survive,” he said in Cebuano, adding proper maintenance and sustainability of the project will require cooperation among them so the project could last until the future generations.

Celestino Nazareno, barangay chairman of said village, which is situated about 26 kilometers from the town’s center, cannot express more but thanked everyone behind the project.

“Dagko jud ni katabang sa among Barangay (This is really a big help to our Barangay),” he said.

“It’s a big help because we don’t anymore have to walk kilometers just to have a drinking water,” added a mother Judith Dian. “Before we have to spend about two hours (to fetch water) but now it is right at our doorstep,” she said pointing to their tapstand, which she shared with seven of her neighbors.

For this project, there are seven clustered tapstands, which are shared by about seventy households or some 420 individuals. Each tapstand is being managed and maintained by the tapstand cluster officers through the supervision of the LIMAWASA.

LIMAWASA have also crafted policies for the water use, according to Mr. Mission. “We collected P20 monthly for the maintenance, which is very affordable for the residents,” he further said.

The said project is funded by Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) with the support of the local government of Tungawan.

Tungawan Mayor Randy Climaco, during the inauguration, also pledged for additional support to the residents. “We hope PEF will still support us in our future development endeavors for this community.”

In response, Ms. Yasmin Busran-Lao, member of the PEF Board of Trustees, said PEF will be working with the community association and the local government to help develop the agri-based enterprise as additional
livelihood means for the villagers.

“Basin naa mo’y mahuna-huna na livelihood project since naa na man ta tubig so daghan na ta oras para idevelop ang atong livelihood. Basin makatabang na pud ang PEF,” she told the residents.

Furthermore, Ms. Busran-Lao revealed that PEF will be working on the development of rural- and agri-based enterprise as its main thrust starting next year.

Earlier, PEF Executive Director Ms. Veronica Villavicencio said PEF is finalizing the details on operationalization of this new PEF thrust.

“Definitely, the ultimate goal of this enterprise development will be a sustainable rural household so we want that each household has direct gains in the project,” Ms. Villavicencio explained.

“We already started scanning for possible rural enterprise that we can possibly support,” added PEF Associate Director Mr. Ric Torres, Jr.

The water system project in Little Margos is only one of the many projects of PEF aimed at alleviating the living conditions of the people especially the poorest of the poor.

According to Mr. Ferdinand Enriquez, PEF Regional Program Coordinator for ZamBaSulTa (Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi), another water system project will be inaugurated next month in Labason, Zamboanga del Norte. By September, he added, similar water system structure will be
turned-over in Maimbung and Indanan in Sulu.

Besides water system project, which is part of basic social services component, PEF also supports projects on livelihood and enterprise, capacity building, and calamity assistance, among others.

Since its creation in 2001, PEF has poured in more than 1-billion in projects nationwide. About 40% of which went to Mindanao with ZamBaSulTa getting roughly 8% or about P80-Million.

PEF funds come from the proceeds of an endowment fund it manages since 2001. (Nuhman Aljani, PEF-Min2)

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