Down a slippery hillside in Barangay Bolirao, Dagami, Leyte, villagers fetch their drinking water every day from a tributary. Here they bathe, wash clothes and clean up the dishes, too.

The descend from the top of the hill, where the families live, to the river could be perilous especially during the rainy season. And the villagers themselves are not aware if the water they are drinking is safe.

To lessen the health risk as well as provide sanitation and accessible water supply to the families, ADRA Philippines constructed the following: a pipe water supply by gravity flow (PWSG), which transports the water from the spring up to the center of the village and a communal latrine designed to produce biogas -a renewable energy source produced from human and animan waste that will be used as a cooking gas.

These outputs were made possible under the “ADRA Network Support to Shelter Recovery of Typhoon Haiyan affected families” (SSR) project that was started last year.

Mother and housewife Elvie Montehermoso, 44, witnessed the construction and completion of the project.

“I was very happy to find out that not only did ADRA repair my house, they also gave our community a water supply and biogas. What a blessing to us!”

The SSR project was completed in June this year, providing shelter repair assistance, cash-for-work, Build-Back-Better carpentry trainings and disaster preparedness seminars (apart from the water and biogas system) to more than 6,000 family members that were affected by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.