THE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-North launched on June 6 its Community-Managed Potable Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (CPWASH) project in Barangay Kapitan Ramon, Silay City.
The project, which will be managed by Hacienda Pula Silay Agrarian Reform Cooperative, aims to provide the community with access to a low-cost source of safe drinking water.
DAR-Negros Occidental I will provide the technology and materials amounting to P50,000 while the cooperative will take charge of the labor component.
The project is seen to benefit 80 farmer-members, their families, and neighboring farms.
Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer I Milagros Flores said the technology is so simple and materials are accessible, thus it can be replicated in other communities.
“This project may be deemed small but its impact is huge,” Flores added.
Edgardo Billiones, executive assistant IV of Silay City, challenged the farmer-members to widen their perspective through one, venturing on other crops aside from sugarcane.
Billiones said it is about time that they considered themselves as farmer entrepreneurs rather than just plain farmworkers.
"You are one strong support of the community, the producer of food," he added.
DAR-Negros Occidental I has turned over so far a total of three water sanitation facilities to farmer-cooperatives in the province.
These are the Dalayapan Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Cadiz City, Mirasol Development Corporation Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Sagay City, and Hacienda Anita Agrarian Reform Cooperative in Escalante City.
The CPWASH projects have benefited a total of at least 300 families in the northern portion of the province.