AFTER almost five years of settling tribal differences and working past construction hurdles, residents of 15 barangays in Sagada, Mountain Province will now have ample water supply flowing into community and household tanks.
On January 7, the tourist destination town inaugurated its P36 million waterworks project, better known as the "Improvement of Buasao Irrigation System and Construction of Tanulong Tribe Irrigators Association Water Service Project."
The project was funded with P18 million under the Priority Development Assistance Fund in 2011 and another P18 million from the Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARMP2) of the Department of Agriculture.
Project implementation was an endeavor between the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Sagada and the Tanulong Tribe Irrigators Association (TTIA).
Mayor Eduardo Latawan of Sagada said the water system will settle disputes among barangays with problem on springs as sources of water supply.
Sagada has 19 barangays and 15 of which will directly benefit from the project since the other barangays will have to develop community water supply system utilizing communal springs.
Sagada Tourism officer Robert Pangod said in 2011, after being appropriated with P18 million from Guingona's PDAF, Sagada was still unable to immediately survey Buasao Spring since TTIA holds water rights over the spring.
Months of exploratory talks between the LGU and TTIA resulted in the permission to finally conduct a survey of the water source.
The hydrological study conducted showed that Buasao Spring discharges 40 liters of water per second, more than enough to supply irrigation to Tanulong rice fields at five liters per second and to domestic water at 12 liters per second.
Consultations and negotiations with the Tanulong tribe and the council of elders soon led to TTIA supporting the project and signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
But in 2013, following a political disruption and work slowdown due to heavy monsoon rains, the municipality of Tubo, Abra also raised its rights to the watershed.
A meeting among Sagada LGU, TTIA, and the elders and officials of Tubo resulted in the agreement that the Abra town does not oppose the entirety of the project, however, the issue of overlapping boundary must be resolved on a later date.
Guingona graced the inauguration of the project on Thursday and said, “Sagada has long been a place of comfort for many travelers but it is not known to most that the locals were experiencing discomfort due to insufficient water supply, especially during summer when rice fields require added irrigation,” Guingona closed.