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Country Water Action: Philippines
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On the seaside outskirts of Bacolod, a principal city of the sugar belt that stretches across the Central Philippines, a huddle of humble homes called “Tinagong Paraiso,” or “Hidden Paradise,” is proving that poverty is not destiny.
“Eight years ago, we were squatters. It was like a swamp. The posts of our houses were submerged in water. There were no toilets. People defecated anywhere,” said Dionisio de la Cruz, president of the residents association and a trained community organizer.
Year after year, the residents of Hidden Paradise have beaten the odds that poverty tends to stacks against people. Residents have secured land rights when they were standing on eviction’s doorstep. The have negotiated communal water connections when there was no such service offered by the local utility. They have built their own sanitation and drainage systems when the government did not.
“This was not just given to us,” said Elvira Batarilan, an elder in the community. “We had to fight for it.”
By most standards, Hidden Paradise is still a humble community. Yet it sits in striking contrast to a neighboring community, Riverside.
Riverside is a vision of the typical squatter area that dots the landscape of the developing world. Homes and walkways sink in the polluted water that lingers after the latest flood. Makeshift toilets hang over stagnant pools surrounding the rickety homes. Residents live with health risks around every corner, no safe water supply in sight and no legal right to be there at all, even though many have managed to stay for years.
Riverside is what Hidden Paradise was 10 years ago. What made the difference?
“What we did was organize ourselves, group together so we could negotiate with the landowner,” de la Cruz said.
The landowner, Mr. Gary Acuna, had entered negotiations with a developer wanting to build a supermarket where the Hidden Paradise residents were living. Eviction was eminent.
Acuna told ADB that not even a court order or monetary compensation could convince the squatters to leave his family's land. “My dad had a hard time and had at some point ordered the police to help in the eviction,” he said.
The residents prevailed, though, and obtained a title to a small corner of the land, which they evenly divided into 50 square meter plots for each family. Still being swampy area, Acuna even filled the land to help mitigate floods.
After securing land rights, Hidden Paradise residents turned their attention to the next seemingly impossible task—getting a clean water supply from the Bacolod City Water Authority (BACIWA).
A number of roadblocks were visible. They had no water infrastructure and no money to build one. BACIWA only makes connections to individual households, which cost a month’s salary for most Hidden Paradise residents.
Once again, they beat the odds. With a loan from a local nongovernment organization to finance the water supply infrastructure, residents laid the pipes and tap stands themselves. They applied to BACIWA and reached an agreement for a communal connection. BACIWA even offered them the basic household tariff rather than the higher rate for large water consumers.
Residents have taken the initiative to install toilets with septic tanks. Today, almost 85 percent of households have septic tanks.
The community also covered the muddy lanes with concrete and installed gutters that line the maze of narrow public walkways. “This drainage system should have been the responsibility of the local government. But we are the ones who found the money for this,” de la Cruz said.
It is this kind of determination that inspired the 22-minute film “Hidden Paradise.” It is one of seven films produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2003 to raise awareness about water issues. The Water Voices Documentary Series features communities and leaders who have risen to the challenge and resolved their water problems.
Relying on the power of good example, Water Voices hopes to inspire grassroots solutions to local water problem. In effect, these grassroots solutions represent the local action needed for the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. Rather than waiting on the global campaign against poverty to trickle down to them, poor communities are standing up and waging their own fight against their own poverty.
And many international organizations are beginning to agree that awareness of issues is half the battle against poverty.
“This is our reality. You have to see it. You can talk about all these problems all you want for us. But when you see it, you see the truth of the situation,” Batarilan said.
In the case of Hidden Paradise, the awareness film itself has been a change agent. De la Cruz credits the film with demonstrating the strengths of the community that in turn has helped:
Life in Hidden Paradise is by no means easy. A day’s living is still earned one day at a time from meager wages as fishermen, vendors, cargo porters, drivers, and laundry women. Life is, however, not as burdened by sickness and worry that unclean water and exposed sanitation bring.
Last Christmas, the community gathered for a holiday party and watched for the first time together the film “Hidden Paradise.” The young ones watched in hysterics as they saw everyday faces and places flash across the big screen. The older ones watched more solemnly.
“Some cried from watching the film,” de la Cruz said. “They know the history of this place. They know the struggle of negotiating for this land, of getting a water connection. This was not easy to do. Families divided over these issues—the land, moving the community—even to this day.”
The struggle was worth it, though.
I think if a person is secure in his dwelling place if he does not have to worry whether he will be asked to leave any day,” de la Cruz said, “ the mind of that person will be able to concentrate on how to improve his surroundings and focus on making a living.”
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