THE Minuro Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Victorias City has received water sanitation facilities from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) through its Community-managed Potable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (CPWASH) project.
The DAR turned over one unit each of rainwater collector, biogas digester, iron removal filter and biosand filter to the recipient-agrarian reform beneficiaries organization (Arbo) in rites held at Barangay 10 in the northern Negros Occidental locality on Friday, November 29, 2019.
The agency also provided P80,000 worth of fund for the installation of the facilities while the association provided P30,000 as counterpart for other activities.
Teodoro Che Salido, senior agrarian reform program officer of the Program Beneficiaries Development Division (PBDD) of DAR-Negros Occidental I, said the project is a milestone for the department.
Salido said the turnover is also a way of informing the public that the agency has a substantial project for the farmer-beneficiaries.
“It signifies the completion of the project which is now fully operational,” he said, adding that the challenge now is how to sustain and maintain the facilities.
Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Elson Mabunay, who was also present at the activity, said the project is for the well-being of the farmers.
Mabunay said sanitary potable water source is vital to ensuring the health of the community.
“In effect, the project would also result in increased income for the association-members,” he added.
The cooperative is engaged in bakery business and vegetable production aside from managing the 32-hectare sugarcane plantation covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).
For her part, officer-in-charge Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer II of DAR-Negros Occidental I Teresita Mabunay said the project is an early Christmas gift of the government to the Arbo.
“Surely, it would improve and impact positively the activities of the cooperative and its members,” Mabunay said.
She underscored that the DAR does not only focus on land distribution. Rather, its comprehensive program includes the welfare of the ARBs.
The agency continues to craft strategies that would enable assisted associations become successful, the official stressed.
CPWASH models a theory-based intervention that addresses water, energy and health as well as promoting a green local economy.
It upholds participation, cooperation, capacity building, enterprise creation and a platform for change.
The agency said its vision is reducing the huge proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and improving sanitation.
The project has been effectively assisting different Arbos in the country since 2007, it added.
Meanwhile, also present during the turnover ceremony were representatives of the barangay council, city government and partner-organizations like the Sugar Industry Foundation Inc.