Maguindanao water project to benefit more than 3,000 households

COTABATO CITY – More than 3,000 households of Datu Abdullah Sangki (DAS) municipality in Maguindanao stand to benefit from potable water with the upcoming implementation of a Level II water system, officials on Thursday said.Mayor Mariam Sangki Mangudadatu of DAS said one of the main problems confronted by the local government unit was the lack of access to potable water in their community.For years, many residents rely only in deep well or rain water for their drinking and everyday water usage, she said. As a result, one out of every eight residents acquired waterborne diseases because of drinking contaminated water in Maguindanao. This project will have a lot of impact on the high mortality rate in our communities, Mangudadatu said as she signed the Memorandum of Agreement with Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Wednesday.The MOA aims to appropriately distribute clean water to barangays of Talisawa and Maunabi, which have a mixed population of Muslims and Christians.Hataman said the construction of a Water Level System II, a piped communal water point project including water tank and pipelines, will alleviate plight of the people for lack of access, or none at all, to potable water in the municipality.Hataman said the regional government was appropriated by Congress with a line budget item of PHP9 million from the regular 2015 infra funds of DPWH-ARMM for the construction of the level II water system.Maguindanao District Engineer James Mlok had verified the capability of Datu Abdullah Sangki (DAS) municipality to implement infrastructure projects before he recommended the establishment of water project.In fact, this is the second MOA of DAS with the regional government. The first was the concreting of Barangays Banaba to Barangay Paitan road.Mangudadatu said before the project was implemented, farmers had difficulty bringing out their agricultural products to the town market center. Now it has been paved, the farmers’ income has greatly improved,” the lady mayor said. In every concreted road, other development follows like power and electricity, construction of houses, transportation activities increase, among others, she said.The popular access roads were via Baragay Esperanza to Banaba, Taliwasa in DAS to adjacent Ampatuan town and other neighboring municipalities of Maguindanao.She told reporters that before the roads were paved, travelers would get lost trying to find the way to DAS. However, Mangudadatu said, in the administration of Hataman and a newly-opened concreted road had placed Datu Abdullah Sangki Municipality on the map as an accessible municipality.The access road and water system for DAS will be very helpful for the development of the highly agricultural town.For 2016, several kilometers of roads and several units of bridges are programmed for DAS to improve the accessibility for the farmers and its inhabitants.Both Hataman and Mangudadatu appealed to the people of DAS to help the government monitor the project implementation as well as help maintain it in their own little way.