BACOLOD City –A water sanitation project was launched in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
It is a part of the Community-Managed Potable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Projects of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Hacienda Pula Silay Agrarian Reform Cooperative will manage the project to give agrarian reform beneficiaries in Barangay Kapitan Ramon, Silay City access to low-cost safe potable drinking water.
The project is seen to benefit 80 farmer-members of the Hacienda Pula Agrarian Reform Cooperative.
DAR will provide for the technology and materials for the project amounting to P50,000 while the cooperative will shoulder the cost of labor.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer I Milagros Flores said the technology is “so simple” and its materials are accessible that one can replicate it in his/her own home.
“This project may be deemed small but its impact is huge,” Flores added.
DAR-Negros Occidental has so far turned over three water sanitation facilities to farmer-cooperatives – Dalayapan Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Cadiz City, Mirasol Development Corporation Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Sagay City and Hacienda Anita Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Escalante City.
The Community-Managed Potable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Projects already benefitted about 300 families in northern Negros Occidental.
DAR executive assistant IV Edgardo Billones challenged the farmers to widen their perspective and venture out on crops other than sugarcane.
“It’s about time that you regard yourselves as farmer-entrepreneurs rather than just plain farm-workers. “Kamo ang haligi sang katilingban, [you are] the producers of food,” Billones added. (With a report from PIA/PN)
