Philippine Village Thankful for Danish Water

To many Filipinos Denmark is a distant country, but to the villagers in Cadiz, the water running from their tabs is Danish. Entering the village, the first thing you see is a big Danish flag painted on the main water tank of the village.

To your health
In 1996, a Danida project was initiated in five Philippine villages.
“The aim was to improve the health of the populations by introducing sanitation and potable water to every household”, says engineer and customer service assistant at Cadiz Water Department, Winston Makilan. The project costs were approximately 65 million Danish kroner and the main part; 61 million kroner were sponsored by Danida. The rest of the means came from local authorities. The consumers only pays for their actual consumption.
“The project is especially for the poor”, Winston Makilan explains.
“They have not paid for any of the construction of this non-profit project”, he says.

Consumer participation
The project was unusual in one particular way: It was demand driven.
“That means that all the consumers in the villages had to participate in the foundation of the cisterns, latrines and faucets that were built”, Winston Makilan explains.
According to en evaluation report on the project that meant that the projects was somewhat delayed due to the Philippine ‘wait and
see-attitude’.
In one village, La Castellana, the project eventually had to be stopped because of ‘lack og support from the local government’, as it says in the evaluation report. All the other four villages – all located in the island of Negros in the central Philippines – the project was a success for the 130,000 people who were affected by the project.

We love Denmark
In the office of the local water authorities Danish band Michael Learns to Rock is flowing from the speakers.
“We love Denmark”, Winston Makilan laughs with reference both to the music and the local water works.
Danida is no longer active in The Philippines and the project has not seen a Dane since it was finished in year 2000, but the villagers still remember Denmark as the country that gave them clean water and sanitation.

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