The Japanese Embassy in Manila turned over on Wednesday the Tokyo-funded potable water system in Natonin, Mountain Province.

The project was approved in 2017 and is part of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) through the Grant Assistance for Grass-roots Human Security Projects (GGP)

“Many residents in Brgy. Banawel, Natonin live remotely from available water sources. It takes roughly three hours a day to fetch water from the nearby spring source. During the dry season when communal water sources dry up, the residents would have no other recourse but to use water from an agricultural irrigation canal, which posed grave health concerns,” the Embassy said.

To address this issue, the Embassy provided a grant amounting to USD79,771 (approximately PHP4 million) to the local government unit of Natonin. The grant covered the construction of a level 2 water system in Barangay Banawel.

During the turnover ceremony, Embassy Third Secretary Yumi Yamada expressed hope that the year-round access to safe water would provide the residents of Banawel “living conditions free from worries of contracting water-borne diseases, lessened burden of fetching water from far away, and allow them to have more time to engage in productive activities for community development”.

As the top ODA donor for the Philippines, Tokyo launched the GGP scheme in the Philippines in 1989 to reduce poverty and help various communities engage in grassroots activities.

To date, 553 grassroots projects have been implemented by the GGP.

“Japan believes that these projects will strengthen the friendship between Japan and the Philippines and contribute to sustaining strategic partnerships between the two countries,” the Embassy said. (PNA)