DAR provides water and biogas facilities in Camarines Sur town

BOMBON, Camarines Sur – The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) together with Camarines Sur Provincial Office II and the local government unit of Bombon joined hands in bringing community-managed potable water supply, sanitation and hygiene project (CPWASH) in Barangay Siembre to provide safe and drinking water and biogas systems.

The CPWASH technology seeks to provide potable water by making use of readily available sources of water such as rainwater to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs).

Apart from the rainwater collector tank, it has a water filtration and purification structure or iron removal filters that will be installed at Siembre Elementary School to supply potable water to pupils, teachers, and community residents.

The filtering structure is capable of removing limestone sediments and turns rainwater and water from artesian wells or pitcher pumps safe to drink.

Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer I Gay L. Labad said Bombon is the eighth municipality in Camarines Sur II area where CPWASH is implemented after Canaman, Sagñay, Caramoan, Garchitorena, Tinambac, Ocampo, and Tigaon.

“We are pushing this project every year especially in agrarian reform areas where people lack potable drinking water,” Labad emphasized.

The project is expected to benefit more than 100 members of the Siembre Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organization (SARBO) and their household members.

Labad also commended Mayor Oscar Borja and the members of Sangguniang Bayan for their firm support to the project.

To realize the project, Mayor Borja said they have already signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with DAR last April 16 for the putting–up of a community-managed water and sanitation project in their municipality.

The barangay LGU of Siembre and SARBO also signed in the agreement.

Under the agreement, DAR would provide P80,000 for the capacity building and training of the identified para-engineers.

As a counterpart, the LGU of Bombon would shoulder P50,000 for the materials while Barangay Siembre and SARBO would give support funds for the additional or emergency expenses and free labor services.

“This will ensure our villagers with a continued supply of safe drinkable water aside from the biogas digester system that transforms pig wastes into energy as a substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to save on money and the environment,” Borja said.

Labad also announced that thirty farmer-members of SARBO in Barangay are now undergoing the 10-day hands-on construction training as “para-engineers” to build and manage the facilities for the benefit of their community and the environment.

The facilities are expected to be completed on April 26, Thursday.

Borja, meanwhile, was pleased to be selected among the recipient LGUs and expressed his intention to expand the project to other areas of Bombon, acknowledging water as the basic right of every community.

During the MOA signing, Borja revealed the rainwater collectors with purification system will be replicated in schools and evacuation centers in every barangay of the municipality prioritizing San Francisco, San Antonio, Sto. Domingo and Pagao. (Geri C. Buensalida/DAR-CamSur)

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