The dream of President Rody Duterte of a better life for Filipinos is raging like wild fire.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) are now preparing a Memorandum of Agreement for the implementation of the Solar-Powered Rural Water Supply Program which will provide irrigation for vegetables and high value crops and safe drinking water for people living in remote off-grid villages in the country.
The DA Secretary and DILG Secretary Eduardo Año have agreed to jointly undertake the program starting this year with a proto-type to be funded by the DA under its existing Solar-Powered Irrigation System project.
The program will target remote Barangays, especially in the many islands of the country, which do not have power sources and where residents rely on open water sources for drinking.
Water will be sourced from water springs or from deep wells to be drilled using modern water drilling equipment.
About 30 percent of the over 40,000 Barangays of the country does not have sources of safe drinking water.
The absence of water supply in the remote villages also affect the food production activities of the residents, especially those planting vegetables and other crops for their subsistence.
Under the draft agreement being prepared by the DA, the DILG will be asked to identify the Barangays which do not have sources of potable water.
The DA will in turn construct the Solar-Powered Rural Water Supply System and organise farmers in the village to be involved in vegetable farming and other income generating farm activities using water.
The program is expected to be launched by August after the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between the DA and the DILG.
(Photos were downloaded from public websites, except for the solar panels which were taken in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental in a DA-funded solar-powered irrigation project.)
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