Life 4 Water was institutionalized on November 5, 2003 when it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines as a non-stock, non-profit organization. However, the organiztion started actually in December 2002 when a group of professionals passionately dedicated in community development agreed to form a water organization.
Why the Organization?
In November 2001, Rockrock*, a colleague in community development work, and I went to his home village in Barangay Jandig, a small agricultural village in the beautiful Municipality of Maribojoc, Province of Bohol to study the possibility of constructing a water sytem. This small small village is divided further into several puroks (political unit in a barangay ideally consisting about 10 or more households). His particular purok and three more others don't have the luxury of easy access to safe drinking water since the barangay was created 100 years back; about 45 households rely mostly on rain water; and for those who can afford, they pay errands amounting to about $0.30 - $0.60 a day.
Because of very limited time, we were not able to complete the study that we have to go back again in November 2002 to finish it. The result: a 10 liters per second water with a maximum fall of 10 meters is flowing inside a cave about 134 meters below the earth surface is very suitable for hydraulic ram lifting. A hydraulic ram is a kind of pump that uses neither electricity nor fuel. It's a water driven pump.
On board a ship on our way back to Iligan City, (where we both reside) I suggested to Rockrock that we organize a water orgaization because I am very optimistic that as soon as the Bohol project is done, however, many rural places will soon seek our assistance and it's hard for us two to manage future requests. After a few preparations, in the month of December 2002, Rockrock with the help of his wife, Nanette, gathered some friends and told them about the idea of forming Life 4 Water. Fortunately, all of them agreed and we elect Rockrock as our President. (I succeeded Rockrock as President the year after.) Then we started working for our registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, a team composed of Tony, Roger, Toto and me was created to handle the Bohol water project..
So the water project in Bohol was the maiden project of the organization. It was in fact a historic one. First, it was of course our signature project and we abled to lift the water from the bottom of the cave to its mouth 134 meters above. Second, after 100 years the village has now easy access to safe drinking water. In fact we call it "the centennial water". The project was funded from CIDDS funds (a national government program). The construction was done by the community with our supervision. A community water team was trained for the project. It was turned-over to the community days before their centennial celebration came. About 300 people were directly benefitted from the water project
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* Rockrock, nickname of Carino V. Antequisa, is the Philippine Accompanier of Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), a UK-based INGO and eventually became the Founding President of Life 4 Water, Inc. |
