Remote Sulu communities to get potable water from PEF and AMORE

  Five remote villages in Tongkil, Sulu will soon have access to safe drinking water through a partnership between the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) and the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program of the United States Agency for International Development, Mirant Philippines Foundation, Department of Energy, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Winrock International. 

 Barangay Kahikukuk, one of the barangays in Bullaan Island off the coast of mainland Tongkil, received a grant amounting to PhP1.414 million from PEF for the construction of a solar-powered, level-2 potable water system that will replace the makeshift shallow wells that have been causing widespread diarrhea, cholera and dysentery in the village, especially among children. Of the 248 households that will benefit from the system, 75 are based in Kahikukuk and will be directly involved in the identification, implementation, operation and management of the water project, including the collection of user fees and the protection of the water source to maintain and sustain the system. The rest of the beneficiaries are from four adjacent island barangays.  

The project proponent is the Kahikukuk Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Association (KBRECDA), which AMORE organized in May 2003 to operate and maintain the battery charging stations with which the project energized 30 households in the barangay. AMORE helps promote peace and progress in Mindanao by energizing poor, remote, conflict-affected communities thereat that cannot be cost-effectively connected to the power grid, with stand-alone, sustainable and clean renewable energy systems such as solar and microhydro. The Program organizes a BRECDA in each of its energized communities, and capacitates it not only to sustain their RE systems but also to expand their development. Several potable water projects have already been implemented in a number of AMORE-energized barangays, in support of one of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 10 key development goals of bringing both electricity and water to all barangays in the country by 2008.

PEF, which will fund close to half of the total cost of the project (half will be borne by AMORE and the full labor cost, by KBRECDA), focuses its financial assistance on basic services (improved and sustained access of poor households to potable water, health care, housing and sanitation), livelihood and enterprise services, and social capital/capacity building.

PEF Associate Director Ricardo Torres, KBRECDA chairperson Asaali Muhalli, and AMORE Deputy Chief of Party Jim Orprecio signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the project in a ceremony held recently in Davao City in the presence of USAID/Philippines’ Office of Energy and Environment Chief Daniel Moore, Mirant Philippines Foundation Executive Director Roberto Calingo, DOE-Electric Power Industry Management Bureau Officer-in-Charge Mylene Capongcol, Sulu Governor Benjamin Loong, and Tongkil Mayor Abdulwahid Sahidulla.

Five remote villages in Tongkil, Sulu will soon have access to safe drinking water through a partnership between the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF) and the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) Program of the United States Agency for International Development, Mirant Philippines Foundation, Department of Energy, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and Winrock International. Two hundred forty-eight households will benefit from the system, 75 of which are based in the village of Kahikukuk and the rest of the beneficiaries are from four adjacent island barangays. The project proponent is the Kahikukuk Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Association (KBRECDA), which AMORE organized in May 2003 to operate and maintain the battery charging stations with which the project energized 30 households in the barangay. Signing of the Terms of Reference for the project were: (L-R) USAID/Phils. Office of Energy and Environment Chief Daniel Moore; PEF Regional Manager Cris Bual; Kahikukuk BRECDA Chairperson Asaali Musalli; PEF Associate Director Ricardo Torres, Jr.; AMORE Deputy Chief of Party Jim Orprecio; and Tongkil, Sulu Mayor Abdulwahid Sahidulla. AMORE helps promote peace and progress in Mindanao by energizing poor, remote, conflict-affected communities thereat that cannot be cost-effectively connected to the power grid, with stand-alone, sustainable and clean renewable energy systems such as solar and microhydro.