The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Health (DOH) and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) have agreed to jointly implement President Aquino’s water and sanitation program particularly in waterless municipalities of the country.
Secretaries Jesse Robredo of DILG, Enrique Ona of DOH and Secretary General Jose Eliseo Rocamora of NAPC signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) for a closer collaborative efforts among the parties as executing agencies of the priority water and sanitation program of the Aquino administration.
The government is implementing the President’s Priority Program on Water (P3W) as part of the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), and to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe potable water and basic sanitation.
Robredo said all partner agencies have agreed to prioritize the implementation of water and sanitation projects in waterless municipalities outside of Metro Manila, consistent with NAPC poverty criteria and DILG good-house-keeping criteria for LGUs.
From the Philippine Water Supply Sector Roadmap, statistics showed that there are 432 waterless municipalities outside of Metro Manila, with more than 1.5 million households without access to safe drinking water. “Waterless municipalities” are defined as municipalities with less than 50 percent service coverage.
The breakdown of the 432 per region are as follows: 12 are located in Region I; eight in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); 29 in Region II; 10 in Region III; 18 in Region IV-A; 10 in Region IV-B; 28 in Region V; 74 in Region VI; 36 in Region VII; 22 in Region VIII; 34 in Region IX; 28 in Region X; 14 in Region XI; 19 in Region XII; 15 in Region XIII; and 75 in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Under the agreement, the NAPC shall serve as the lead coordinating agency in the implementation of the program, and shall ensure that priority be given to the barangays in municipalities with the highest density of poor households.
The DOH shall provide the funding requirements for monitoring the implementation of the water and sanitation facilities in the waterless municipalities, while the DILG shall develop and implement capacity development interventions under the program, and shall establish collaborative partnerships and network among relevant agencies, non-governmental organizations, academe and other institutions in the implementation of the capacity development interventions.
