ARMM's Jolo water supply project underway

COTABATO CITY --- Residents of Jolo, Sulu stand to benefit from a multi-million hilltop reservoir being built to ensure supply of cheap clean water to areas where there is high prevalence of water-borne diseases.The 1,000-cubic meter catchment facility, being constructed by the public works department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Barangay Latih in Patikul, is expected to be operational before yearend.Engineer Don Mustapha Loong, regional secretary of ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways, on Saturday said he is contended with the pace of the reservoir’s construction.The reservoir is just one of the key components of the ARMM’s on-going water system project regional planners designed to provide residents of Jolo adequate supply of clean water.Loong on Friday toured the project site, along with senior officials of the Sulu District Engineering Office, to assess the construction of the multi-million water reservoir. We are glad that the project has been going on smoothly with the help of local officials and barangay folks,” he said.The project, to include setting up of conduit pipes that would straddle through villages in the reservoir’s surroundings, will pump water on a 24-hour basis to Jolo, the capital of Sulu.The intricate water system venture is being bankrolled by the ARMM administration with an initial P30 million allocation from the region’s 2014 infrastructure subsidy from the national government.Loong said ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman is keen on providing an additional P40 million grant for the expansion of the project out of the region’s 2015 infrastructure budget. The large pipes to be used for the distribution of water to service areas have arrived in Jolo and are now ready for installation,” Loong said.Loong said thousands of residents in Jolo, the seat of Sulu’s provincial government, are assured of adequate supply of clean water once the water system operates.The facility will pump downstream to residential enclaves in Jolo and villages in Patikul clean water from the Kiram mountain spring, one of the top sources of potable water in the province.Physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., ARMM’s health secretary, said the medical community in the island province of Sulu is thankful to the Hataman administration for embarking on the project. Clean water means life, source of life. This project will boost our efforts of curtailing water-borne diseases among the local folks,” Sinolinding said.