Koronadal City—The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Mindanao is set to inaugurate the first ever community-owned water purifying station project in the country, an agency official revealed Friday.

Located in Barangay D. Lotilla, a remote village of Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, southwestern part of Mindanao, the project costs P846, 638.00, and is seen to end the decades of suffering of villagers from the insufficient potable water supply in the area.

DSWD-12 assistant regional director, Gemma N. Rivera, said that the project is expected to be inaugurated either end of May or early of June to start its full operation, benefiting 765 households.

“The residents have been left with no choice but to spend a portion of their income to buy drinking water especially for children, elders and sick members of the community, a factor in making them live in dire poverty” Rivera said.

Rivera added that aside from answering community health concerns due to unsafe drinking water, as income generating initiative, the project will provide villagers an employment and entrepreneurial opportunities and to increase the local government revenue.

The project is said to be the only purifying station project in the Philippines constructed under the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) since the project began in 2003.

A community-driven development project, Kalahi-CIDSS gives community people an opportunity to chart local development directions by analyzing their own needs, managing resources and implementing appropriate intervention.

Kalahi-CIDSS is one of the “Tatsulo”, a convergence of three flagship poverty-reduction programs implemented by DSWD, which includes Pantawid Pamilya (4Ps) and Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP). (Hilbert T. Estacion, Regional Social Marketing Officer, DSWD-12)