By Franklin P.
Gumapon
PAGADIAN CITY – An evaluator from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
has recently visited the municipalities of Katipunan and Kalawit in Zamboanga
del Norte to assess the implementation of water system projects by conducting a
series of interviews with Barangay Water System Associations (BWSAs), municipal
officials and recipient-communities.
UNDP sent
Richard Chiwara to gather the problems and challenges encountered in the project
implementation, and more specifically to know its impact on the beneficiaries.
Chiwara said
“it is important to assess the results of the program in order to improve and
enhance some areas such as financing, planning and technical assistance.”
“Water is a
governance issue for it serves community. In this governance, there must be
mutual accountability between the consumer and the provider. The provider must
see to it that the delivery of basic services in providing accessible and
potable water must be properly managed,” said Chiwara.
In Katipunan,
Chiwara advised Mayor Crisostomo T. Eguia to “think of innovative ways” such as
engaging in Public-Private Partnership (PPP), tapping private investors and/or
tying up with other organizations like JICA, AUSAID, etc. to augment funding
support for water system projects.
Mayor Eguia
also informed Chiwara that his municipality has embarked on water sanitation
project in three barangays.
Eguia also
disclosed that the water system project in five barangays using the P10 million
allocation from the Department of Health (DOH) in 2011 is now 90 percent
complete while the P2.4 million from DILG’s 2013 Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) 2013
appropriation would be used for the expansion and rehabilitation of the water
systems of its seven interior barangays.
In Kalawit,
Chiwara found the BWSA operation particularly in Barangay New Calamba
“remarkable,” as the water system project has reportedly improved the living
condition of the residents and that the water-borne diseases has gone down.
One
beneficiary testified that before the BWSA, the residents there had to spend
more time on fetching water from elsewhere than tending their farms or
household chores. With the BWSA now, their income has improved as they have
more time for their livelihoods.
Kalawit Mayor
Eugenio Baliling also assured that by 2015, 85-95 percent of the residents
there will have access to potable water as this one of the major priority
programs of the municipality next to livelihood.
Chiwara also
reminded the consumers to bear the responsibility of promptly paying their
water bills, saying “it is your right to have water but the maintenance and services
are not free.”
It can be
recalled that the provision of water supply system to waterless areas is a
joint program under the Millennium Development Goals Fund (MDGF) 1919 between
and among the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), United
Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA),
National Water Resources Board (NWRB) and UNDP. (FPG/PIA9/DILG9)