Araw ng Tubig! Village Celebrates Day When Water First Flowed

Our mountain village of Nueva Vida in M’lang, Cotabato used to celebrate its fiesta every December 8.

But when the first water system built through my efforts was inaugurated on May 7, 1982, our village leaders decided that it should be celebrated as the Barangay Fiesta because the date marked the end of the hardships of people in fetching water from a spring 2 kilometers away.

So, today, our village celebrates the Patronal Fiesta Dec. 8 and the Barangay Fiesta or Araw ng Tubig, May 7.

Here is a post made by my brother, Mlang Vice Mayor Joselito Piñol:

“This water system was inaugurated May 7, 1982 kaya ang Barangay fiesta (Barangay anniversary) ng Barangay Nueva Vida ay May 7 in honor of the Water System na until now being run by the Nueva Vida Water System Association, as of this date ang Brgy Nueva Vida may 7 na level 2 water system halos lahat na purok at pamamahay may supply na ng tubig because we dont want the young generation to experience the hardship we experienced. So when Sec Emmanuel Pinol say & do something he knows it because alam nya at nadaanan niya.”

#WaterIsLife!

(The water tank to the left is the first reservoir of the water system I built in our village in 1982. The concrete reservoir was built when I became Mayor of M’lang in 1995.)