Coastal village in GovGen wins best sanitation award
DAVAO ORIENTAL— The village of Montserrat, a coastal community in the town of Governor Generoso, bagged regional recognition for this year’s National Search for Barangay with Best Sanitation Practices (NSBBSP).
Engineer Gloria O. Raut, environmental and occupational health program manager and team leader of Regional Technical Working Group of the Department of Health 11, said that barangay Montserrat passed the criteria of the national search for having 100 percent of its households have access to safe water supply and sanitary toilets. In addition, Barangay Montserrat practices solid waste management, clean and green program, and implements Water Sanitation and Hygiene (Wash) in its elementary schools and day care centers.
A community composed of six sitios with a total of 1,539 population, Punong Barangay Zaldy Gasulla stressed that community participation is the main challenge in achieving a clean community, especially that their area is bordered by the Davao Gulf in the western part of the municipality. With the barangay functionaries working closely with purok presidents, Gasulla said that aside from inculcating in the mind of each resident the health benefits of a clean environment, they also conduct a yearly inspection of the cleanliness of each purok.
“In time for the celebration of our barangay’s founding anniversary, we conduct a search for the cleanest purok and we give prizes for the winners. Through this yearly activity, residents are encouraged to work together to maintain the barangay’s cleanliness. Each household here has a sanitary toilet, compost pit, and backyard garden,” Gasulla said.
The Municipal Government of Governor Generoso, which has been supporting the barangay’s cleanliness effort by supplying toilet bowls and other materials in building sanitary toilets, will be replicating the Barangay Monserrat’s yearly contest in all in its villages. Vice Mayor Vicente Orencia said that “through a Municipal-wide contest every anniversary of Governor Generoso town, people will be enticed to discipline themselves in practicing proper sanitation.”
Vice Mayor Orencia said that the P150,000 cash prize that the barangay will receive this December’s awarding ceremony for the Best Sanitation Practices search will be used for more environmental and other developmental programs of the barangay.
Aside from the cash prize, the barangay, as well as the municipality of Governor Generoso, will receive a plaque of recognition.
Governor Nelson Dayanghirang, who attended the program in Barangay Montserrat on September 4, said that he “very much appreciate the barangays’ efforts to clean their