NGO-Village Project Lights Up Sagada Village

While homes powered by commercial electricity contend with high power rates, the agriculture-dependent residents of the village where the joint project of the Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC) and the Mabaca tribe of Bayawong was recently set up only contribute minimal monthly dues. Trained members of the community will manage the project with minimal supervision from MRDC, a Sagada based non-government organization.

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE –A twenty-five (25) kilowatt micro hydro project recently electrified 35 households among the Mabaca tribe of Bayawong, Balbalan, Kalinga.

While homes powered by commercial electricity contend with high power rates, the agriculture-dependent residents of the village where the joint project of the Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC) and the Mabaca tribe of Bayawong was set up only contribute minimal monthly dues.

Trained members of the community will manage the project with minimal supervision from MRDC, a Sagada based non-government organization.

Bobby Kasan, an MRDC staff member, disclosed that the electrification of the Mabaca tribe is the third phase of their project.

Kasan added that the project feasibility study started in 1999. In 2004, they already installed the power plant that powered the rice mill as the first phase. In June this year, they completed the blacksmith shop powered by the plant as the second phase. They produced tools from this shop for their agricultural activities in rice fields and their uma (slope farms).

He added that the micro hydro plant is among MRDC's appropriate technology projects done in partnership with community organizations.

“We give orientation for appropriate projects like this that will empower villages economically,” explained Kasan. “We give trainings to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to community leaders so that they can manage the project even without us.”

Kasan also shared that the MRDC had been engaged in such partnership with villagers in the region since its establishment in 1978.

The community was electrified on Nov. 30 after a ritual where a pig was offered as part of a tribal tradition.

The community is an eight-hour walk from the provincial highway. Mainly a subsistence economy, Mabaca also produces coffee, aside from food for community consumption.

The MRDC’s shop in Sagada is also utilized for appropriate technology learning. Its programs also include research related to sustainable development, community forest management, and animal-raising. Nordis/Posted by Bulatlat

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