RCDD’S gift to Davao on World Water Day
Mindanao Times
First posted: 03/23/2010
MARCH 22 is World Water Day as declared by the United Nations. This is to increase global awareness on the worldwide water crisis. There is an estimated one billion people today who still do not have access to drinking water.
Davao City, the largest city in the world at 244,000 hectares, is blessed with one of the best potable water in the world. Yet this valuable resource is not accessible to all its 1.5 million diverse residents, especially in the upland communities where most of the city’s indigenous tribes live.
The women of the Rotary Club of Downtown Davao (RCDD) want to change all that starting with two remote barangays in the city’s Marilog District – Barangay Bantol and Barangay Magsaysay. These two upland communities are situated 60 to 70 kilometers from the central business district of Davao City. It has rolling to moderately steep and very steep slopes with an average elevation above sea level ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 meters. Residents of these communities have to go up and down these slippery slopes to get their supply of water from a nearby river, using pails and cans to bring water to their homes. This task is mostly done by the women and children and it gets risky during the rainy season.
Although the club is faced with limited resources to fund a project of this magnitude, RCDD was undaunted and immediately sought other partners who might share the same advocacy. It came through the Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) when it invited some Rotary clubs in Davao City sometime in the end of 2009 for a possible partnership in implementing its water system management projects in Mindanao. It turned out that these water projects will be funded by a 3-H Grant of The Rotary Foundation in collaboration with USAID.
The Rotary Foundation approved RCDD’s application for a 3-H Grant for the potable water project and hygiene education for Barangays Bantol and Magsaysay. The total amount is US$111,100 with US$96,000 awarded as grant and US$15,100 representing the club co-sponsor’s counterpart through the Rotary Club of Hermiston, USA.
Believing that it literally takes an entire village to make a project work, RCDD partnered with Barangay Captain Luciano Bansilan of Bantol and Barangay Captain Mary Jane Duyan of Magsaysay and got their commitment to work for watershed conservation, river/creeks protection, and agro-forestry enhancement to improve their livelihood and protect their water sources. They are now RCDD’s partners in constructing, operating, and maintaining the water system. Davao City Councilor Kaloy Bello and Congressman Sid Ungab are also lending their support to the project.
The groundbreaking ceremonies for the project started on February 21, 2010 and the project will be implemented in a three-year period targeting at least 750 household beneficiaries.
Love (AMORE), indeed, works in magnificent ways. And Rotary has once again responded to the call of service — bringing not just safe drinking water to depressed communities, but hope and love to those who need it most.
Source: http:/www.mindanaotimes.net/?p=7434