Monday, May 26, 2014

Sta. Maria farmers gain access to potable water

STA. MARIA, Davao del Sur, May 26 (PIA) – The agrarian reform beneficiaries and other farmer stakeholders at an agrarian reform community in this town have now access to safe drinking water through a Community-Managed Potable Water Sanitation and Hygiene (CPWASH) project.

The Department of Agrarian Reform Davao del Sur provincial office has recently turned over the CPWASH technology to the farmer-officers of the United CARP Agrarian Beneficiaries Association, Inc. (UNICARBAI) Multi-Purpose Cooperative, at Basiawan ARC, in the municipality of Sta. Maria.  

The project which uses the technology of Iron Removal Filter (IRF) and Bio Sand Filter (BSF) application was undertaken by the Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development (BARBD) of DAR in collaboration with the Philippine Center for Water and Sanitation (PCWS).

Prior to the launching of the project led by DAR provincial officer Atty. Juancho P. Calud, some 25 ARBs and stakeholders from UNICARBAI MPC were trained for 15 days on hands-on construction, operation and management, and sustainability of the project.

The trained ARBs could pass on the knowledge on how to make IRF, BSF, water collector and biogas digester technologies to other interested farmers, which could be an additional enterprise and income for both the trainers and the cooperative.

The cooperative is now offering promotional package of the technology (both labor and materials), for those who want to avail of the technology and who have problems about safe drinking water, and also for swine raisers who have concerns on the disposal of manure.

As part of the social enterprise of the CPWASH project, eight (8) heads of swine were dispersed to the first identified ARB-leaders of the cooperative.

The swine will be propagated and the offspring will be dispersed after four to five months until all members of the cooperative have availed of the program. (DAR-DavSur/YadzGeyrozaga)

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