Samar mayor thanked DILG for safe drinking water

THE town mayor of Santo Niño in Samar province has expressed her gratitude to the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG), saying that finally her town would enjoy a better and potable drinking water.

Mayor Lita Coñejos said the P7-million financial assistance received recently from the DILG, four of the 13 barangays of Santo Niño could now have safe drinking water.

“I am really so thankful to the DILG. Our town is one of the recipients but the first one to receive the financial assistance under the Salintubig (Sagana at Ligtas na Tubig Para sa Lahat) program,” Coñejos said.

Under the Salintubig program, waterless villages and towns in the country are to receive financial assistance from the DILG to ensure that the people of these areas would have a safe and potable drinking water.

Aside from the island town of Santo Niño, the municipalities of Palo, Dulag, Julita, Mayorga, all in Leyte; Arteche, Dolores, General MacArthur and Llorente, all in Eastern Samar; San Jorge in Samar and Biri and Palapag, both in Northern Samar have been identified to receive assistance under the project.

Mayor Coñejos said safe drinking water is one of the problems in their town, saying that at present, the main source of their drinking water, particularly at the town center, is an open spring located in Barangay Buenavista.

Under the project, the villages of Buenavista, Ilo, Basurod and Takut are to enjoy a potable water, the town mayor said.

“We are so happy with this assistance. Our town is one of the poorest towns (in the region) and with a very limited budget, we cannot afford to come up with this kind of project,” Coñejos said.

Santo Niño, an island town in Samar, is a fifth class town with around P28-million income and with a population of 13,300.

The project is expected to be undertaken anytime this year, Coñejos said.

Aside from providing drinking water, the project under the Salintubig, it would also lessen cases of water-borne diseases in her town, Coñejos said.

“While we have yet to experience an outbreak of any water-borne diseases of late, we have several cases traced to unsanitary drinking water,” the first-termer mayor said.

The mayor also said that her town stand to receive another P10 million from the Department of Health for the construction of a 10-bed capacity hospital. b>(Leyte Samar Daily Express)