Lupang Pangako is a resettlement area of the Aeta tribe (approx 170 households) displaced by the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in 1991. In 1997 World Vision bought the land and donated it to Aeta’s. In 2004 an elevated storage tank was built with distribution pipe work for a level II system, next to a hand pump. This system has never been used as there is no method for pumping water from the well to the elevated tank.

The History of Pinatubo Aeta

The Pinatubo Aeta refers to the small-statured, semi-nomadic Negrito tribes who occupied the forest areas of Mt. Pinatubo. Social scientists consider the Pinatubo Aeta an important ethnic group, as they have maintained their cultural identity through centuries, and are the largest group of indigenous people in the Philippines.

Of 100,000 people evacuated, 56,721 were Aeta. The Aeta came from the village of Belbel, which was situated closest to the volcano. The Belbel Aeta were the last group to be evacuated from the mountain.

The tribes were under the protection of the government’s relocation program, but had endured transfer from one rehabilitation center to another across five years. Many Aeta died during their stays in the relocation sites, especially women and children. Death was caused by poor health conditions, poor sanitation and insufficient food.

After five years of living in rehabilitation centers, without the ability to farm, no sponsoring group had taken responsibility to help the Belbel Aeta relocate. The 185 Belbel Aeta families were found by World Vision at the Paitan Elementary School, an evacuation center in Botolan, Zambales. World Vision adopted the whole community on the recommendation of the Department of Social Welfare Development.

The Rehabilitation Phase

World Vision rented 13 hectares of agricultural land for the Belbel Aeta. Of that land, only 4.5 hectares was purchased. After enduring the Loobbunga Resettlement area, where the Aeta stayed while they started to build a village, the Aeta told World Vision that the land area was too small to accommodate 185 families and allow them to live normal lives.

Because the community was well organized, it committed to a development plan, and proposed to World Vision that it broaden the settlement area. Through the initiative of its leaders the community became intensely involved in fund-raising efforts. A plan, Plan Famine, was conceived by World Vision to secure more land for the Belbel Aeta.

In 1997, 235 hectares of agricultural land was donated on which to continue to build a new community. The village was named Lupang Pangako, Promised Land. Each family was provided a hectare of land to cultivate and 900 square meters to build a residence. To the Aeta, owning their own land fulfilled a dream: they would never be evacuated again.

Project Plan

A Single Drop for Safe Water was introduced to this community by Hiyas Foundation. After a site inspection both ASD and Hiyas realized that the water situation could be easily remedied using the existing assets within the community, most importantly the local residents.

A preliminary project plan was agreed upon and presented to the Aeta community by Hiyas. This community meeting is documented in the attached letter where representatives acknowledged that they had many of the assets required and the project should rehabilitate these assets and increase the capability of those involved.

Main objective in this project is to improve the water supply in a sustainable manner so that current residents and future generations can enjoy an improved quality of life with respect to water access.

This will be done by:

• Complete construction of Level II water system, piped water to
community tap stands to an existing tank for 173 households
• Pipe installation for distribution system
• Refurbishment and cleaning of existing tank
• Installation of an electric pump
.

Phase I: Technical Training, Organizational Development and Implementation (5 weeks)
Phase II: Monitoring and Evaluation (6 months)

There are 749 residents who's only access to water is thru a hand pump and the river which has been recently dammed significantly reducing the available flow during dry season. This is a community of subsistence farmers and hunters living on household incomes less than 3000P per month. This project would be working with the local multipurpose cooperative to increase local capacity so that they can maintain, operate and administer a level II (piped water to tap stands) water system.

Multipurpose Cooperative agrees to:
o Maintain and operate pump and water distribution system.
o Receive and manage fees from community so that they can pay electricity bills and maintain water system in sustainable manner.

To ensure community ownership, community members have agreed to:
o pay small water access fees to cover maintenance and electricity for the pump.
o counterpart or provide in-kind services, food for training participants, accommodation for trainers and materials totaling approx $2700US
o install their own water system with the training and guidance from ASDSW

Please see attached letter from the community for full description of their commitment with signatures from community members.

This is combination infrastructure development and good governance project, consisting of rehabilitation and enhancement of existing infrastructure, water system, while providing capacity building thru technical trainings and strengthening an existing peoples organization to maintain and operate their own water system. Hygeine education will enhance water and the connection to community health. Business planning workshops will support financial sustainability. Resource mapping and visioning helps to envision the improvement of their community and plan for future projects after this one is complete. Guiding organization and community members to build their own water system not only ensures project ownership, but empowers the community with the confidence to claim responsibility for their own growth and expansion.

The project uses an asset based approach where the community looks at the resources it has and then uses those as a basis for this project. The largest asset is not the unused tank and hand pump, but the people within the community. The organization and local community members will install the water system while being supervised and trained so that they can maintain and operate the system in the future. Also the organization will receive capacity building training so that they are
strong enough and have the skills and community support to keep the system operating. Also with this enhanced capacity the community can work on other projects with only technical help from outside.

This capacity building within the organization and the community is the key to long term sustainability. Long term sustainability requires input from the whole community and consists of ongoing administration, operation and maintenance of the system. This means that the users of the system contribute fees to the organization who then use these fees to pay for electricity, preventative maintenance and break down maintenance. Design of the project concentrates on this capacity building with a very significant training and workshop component allowing the community to develop the features required for sustainability. This utilizes an existing cooperative and the more efficient elements of a cooperative structure to provide an efficient community service.