By Cheneen R. Capon
For 57-year old Aurora Binigi-an, water is not just a basic needbut a legacy she will leave to her children and grandchildren.
A resident of Habitat Site in Barangay Manikling in this municipality for more than 15 years, Binigi-an described how her family survived with limited water supply in a hard way. She said they did not have their own direct supply of water so they family had to go to a common pump. The pump, however, was old and difficult to operate.
This is ironic because she lives in a place dubbed as the gateway to the renowned Mount Hamiguitan, which early this year was inscribed as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.
But the completion of a potable water system, which will bring clean and reliable water supply to the area, will ease her life she approaches the age of retirement.
Binigi-an is just one of the hundreds of families that will benefit from the potable water project of the Barangay Manikling through the help of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its community-driven poverty alleviation program called the Kapit-Bisig Laban saKahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services-National Community-Driven Development Program (KALAHI-CIDDS-NCDDP).
Through a participative approach, officials of DSWD and members of the community and local government units are working together to identify problem of the community and the possible solution.
According to DSWD, the development objective of KALAHI CIDSS-NCDDP is to “have barangays/communities of targeted municipalities become empowered to achieve improved access to services and to participate in more inclusive local planning, budgeting, and implementation.”
“We dancedjust to prove to the DSWD how committed we are in this project,”Binigi-an said, recalling the days that the potable water system project was just in the proposal stage.
She said the project allowed their community to be empoweredand united at the same time.
“For one or two days, we became engineers of our own without the need to have any license,” she said.
For Elita E. Glenogo, barangay secretary of Manikling and also beneficiary of the water system, clean potable water that will soon flow from their faucet is a sign of progress.
“For many years, we had to fetch water from an old water pump,” Glenogo said,showing her chiseled are muscles.
San Isidro Mayor Justina “Tina” Yu said households used to get their water from the creeks and poblacions in the 90’s.
But today is a different story as projects like the KALAHI-CIDDS help the grassroot level.“Direktanasamgapuroknilanilalagayangpatubig,” she said.
The installation of the potable water system is just one of the many projects implemented in the Barangay San Isidro through the KALAHI-CIDDS of the DSWD.
Other community empowering initiatives by both the community and government were construction of kindergarten classrooms, day-care centers, and health centers.
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