DAGUPAN CITY - This city will implement the “Sustainable Sanitation in East Asia” project of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the World Bank water and sanitation program.

The project will be funded by the SIDA and co-funded by the World Bank, which is also the project implementor.

The city, which will receive about $300,000 fund support for the four-year project, has been chosedn as one of the six recipients of the program in the Philippines.

City health officer Leonard Carbonell said the project aims to address sanitation problems and concerns in urban and rural areas.

“The project also aims to address health concerns associated with sanitation,” Carbonell said even as he revealed that an average of 9.3 Filipinos sufer from diarrhea every hour and an average of 25 Filipinos die of diarrhea every hour.

Carbonell said that aside from the $300,000, an additional grant will be conferred by SIDA whenever there will be an ongoing sanitation related projects in the city.

Carbonell said that the city was chosen because it has demonstrated ability to implement the program based on the assessment of the Department of Health and Department of Environment and Natural Resources which are the conduit participating agencies for the project.

He added that based on the assessment of the participating agencies, Dagupan City has been evaluated as a good project partner efficient in implementing projects, and has a committed local government unit.

According to Carbonell, some of the indicative activities which may be undertaken in line with the project would be identifying strategies for protecting the existing water source identifying strategies for protecting water eco-system, and development of surveillance mechanisms for diarrheal diseases.

Carbonell attended the consultation on the implementation of the project with the LGUs and agencies concerned on October 20 at the Sulu Hotel.

Other recipients of the project include certain municipalities in the Mt. Province, Samar, South Cotabato, General Santos and Sarangani. (CIO/Sunshine D. Robles)