Philippines, Mindanao
The project
Marabuhay is a Mindanao upland community that had no access to potable water. People commonly suffered from skin disease and diarrhea. It was expensive and difficult to get their daily needs of water.
Emmanuel International in the Philippines started a water project in this community. Since the villagers have been without their own source of drinking water for so long, some were at first very sceptical that it would work. Then once the water flow was tested, they saw some hope. Could it be true? The source seemed so far, 3 kms from the community.
Phase 1 began in earnest earlier in 2022, in February and March. The project commenced with building the water system: cleaning up and capping the water source, building catchment tanks and laying of pipes to the community.
After the 50 rolls of pipe arrived, the team began clearing pathways, digging trenches and connecting all of the pipes. Since each roll of pipe is 90 meters long it takes a lot of work to stretch it out. The pipes have now reached the village!
Still to be built are the two reservoir tanks which will allow all the 500 families clean drinking water!
In the next phase, technical training for operating the water system will be provided to the community. The last phase focuses on the sustainability of the program. This includes tree planting, periodic checking of the pipes, scheduled cleaning of the reservoir and other miscellaneous maintenance activities.