Pagadian City – Two rural schools in the Zamboanga Peninsula have recently begun to have reliable access to potable water after the construction concrete reservoirs with connections to classrooms' latrines and washing stations, has been completed by a joint project team of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and the Alliance for Mindanao and Multi-Regional Renewable/Rural Energy Development (AMORE) Program.
The elementary schools of Gubaan in Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur; and Del Monte in Buug, Zamboanga Sibugay will no longer experience unreliable and intermittent water supply as tanks which could store up to 8,000 liters of water can now supply the schools' and students' water needs.
Until the completion of the school water project, teachers and students at the Del Monte Elementary School had to wait every other day when their water zone – one of three in the village – is scheduled to receive water ration. Constructed in 2001 by another development agency, the village's current water system can hardly supply the more than 500 households with water everyday.
Shirley Marayag – village captain since October 2010 – says that rationing water was the solution that they saw to still be able to provide everybody with water, albeit, insufficient. Households pay a fixed monthly fee of PhP35.00 for every five cubic meters of water that they collect from communal taps scattered all over the village.
On ration day students from each grade level scramble to the side of the school building where the rubber hose connected to the village's water system can suddenly be found spouting water. There they fill their classroom's eight-cubic meter water container. They take two days to wait for water, and four hours to finish it all up.
To make up for the insufficient supply, teachers and students collected rainwater in buckets. When it didn't rain, water was sourced from the more reliable springs some 150 meters from the classrooms. So as not to miss that many class lessons, students took turns in going down to the spring – a good 30-minute downhill walk from the classroom – to fetch water.
Students at the Gubaan elementary school suffered no different fate. While their school supposedly had a connection to a water system, supply is almost always insufficient as three villages shared in the water stored in one reservoir. Located farthest from the water source, Brgy. Gubaan finds itself left with no more than a trickle when water finally reaches them.
Water reservoirs dedicated to serve each of the elementary school's water needs will change all that. Now, sufficient water for the use of Del Monte's 361 and Gubaan's 356 pre-school and grade school students, right in their own classrooms and latrines can be adequately supplied.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is the private operator of the country's electricity superhighway. As a responsible corporation, NGCP not only provides reliable electricity transmission service to the whole country, but also contributes to the socio-economic development of communities hosting its substations and transmission lines.
The AMORE Program is a rural electrification alliance between the United States Agency for International Development, and the Philippine Department of Energy, SunPower Foundation and Winrock International. Since 2004, more than 5,000 households have benefited from AMORE's safe water projects.
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