DAR-Assisted Ilocos Norte water system implements no penalties on late payments due to Covid-19 crisis
Vira Vira is supplying potable water to residents of five barangays in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
They say that crisis brings out the best and the worst in people. And amidst the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) caused by the Covid-19 crisis, compassion prevails among the members of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Assisted Vira Vira Rural Waterworks and Sanitation Association, Inc. (Vira Vira RWSAI) in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
To help its community household-members and farmers cope up with the effect of ECQ, the Vira Vira RWSAI located in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte announced that no penalty and surcharges will be applied on late payments to its members during the ECQ period because they understand that covid-19 disease has already affected their livelihood activities.
Vira Vira was established in the late 1980s with the assistance provided by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the World Bank (WB).
Vira Vira General Manager Jojo V. Constantino said the cancellation of penalties and surcharges is their way of helping ease the pain brought by the present health crisis and have their members focus more on the welfare and health conditions of their families.
“The implementation of this policy may even be prolonged depending on the situation in the following weeks,” Constantino said.
Constantino explained that water meter readings will still be done but due dates will be extended.
“Our services and operations will still continue even during the ECQ period. We will still respond to complaints and emergency cases to ensure of the steady water supply in the community,” he added.
Vira Vira RWSAI was established in the late 1980s with the assistance provided by the DAR in Ilocos Norte and the water and sanitation program of the World Bank.
Before its establishment, barangays Subec, Saguigui, Baduang, Burayoc and Saud in Pagudpud had poor barangay water system forcing many residents to fetch drinking water from a “bubon-bubon” – a hole dug at the riverbank.
At present, Vira Vira RWSAI is supplying potable water to 6,000 residents of the said barangays with the present number expected to increase upon the implementation of their expansion plans.
#AgrarianReformPH
