New Water System Inaugurated in Dibut, Aurora

The Dumagat of Dibut in San Luis, Aurora Province do not have to haul and boil their drinking water anymore. Thanks to the support provided by the UNDP-GEF-SGP Project and MISEREOR, a ferrocement-based water system with a 10 thousand liter capacity reservoir has been completed and opened for public use last May 30, 2003. Around 200 hundred families directly benefit from the project.

Construction of the water system started last December. Supervised by PAFID's Engineer Nico Caslangan, the project was implemented through the cooperation of members of the Kabinsa Farmers Association headed by Eping De La Torre . Elements of a military detachment nearby, who realized they will also benefit, volunteered labor specially in the hauling of sand and laying out of pipelines. A dozen public water stand has been put up.

Aside from providing safe drinking water and lessening the burden of fetching water from an unsafe source, the project aims to instill consciousness on the importance of watersheds. Sensing this logic, it did not take long for the indigent Dumagat to declare the mountain source of their drinking water not only as watershed but as wildlife sanctuary. They indicated this into their land use development plan.