Lake Buhi

8/19/10

Here we are on Lake Buhi, one of the most beautiful places we have seen in the Philippines. We came here to investigate a potential water project. The people of the barangay or village are experiencing many problems with water borne illness. When tested 67% of the water was contaminated with e-coli. In addition to diarrhea there have been outbreaks of cholera and typhoid. They currently have two water sources that are open springs.

To get to the barangay we needed to travel 45 minutes across the lake in a rickety wooden boat. The boat had a flat bottom and so it was driven right up on to the shore where we literally jumped off, traversed a rice field, and hiked up a slippery hill. Quite a feat for two old fat folks. Our meeting was held in a tiny catholic church where the villagers did a great job of making their case for a water system. The purposed system would capture water high on the mountain in a spring box and pipe it down to the village, thus preventing the current ground water contamination.

LDS Charities does not just give stuff away so the residents will need to provide sweat equity and attend educational classes in the village to learn how to run and maintain their water system. Another source will provide material for the people to install toilets, currently the people use the great outdoors, thus contributing to the contamination.