WHEN THE Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) program reached Kahikukuk in 2003, however, the objective was to give the local community electricity. After all, AMORE, which has been energizing communities since 2002, was formulated to develop a sustainable approach to rural electrification.

	BRECDA members unveil the marker for the solar-powered water system, the first in the whole of ARMM. [photo courtesy of AMORE]

AMORE is a joint effort of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Mirant Philippines Foundation, Inc., the Department of Energy, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and the nonprofit group Winrock International. The program helps promote peace and progress in Mindanao by energizing poor, remote, conflict-affected communities that cannot be connected to the power grid with clean, indigenous, reliable, and affordable stand-alone renewable energy systems, such as solar and micro-hydropower.

But its proponents soon realized that installing renewable energy systems was just a development starting point. And so even before putting in the power systems, AMORE workers began identifying and organizing partners in the local community into Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Associations (BRECDAs). These associations were then trained not only to operate and maintain their renewable energy systems, but also to pursue other development projects for their communities.

AMORE had found Kahikukuk lit with gas lamps. Five years ago, it brought in solar photovoltaic battery-charging stations that were enough to light up about 30 homes. After further consultations with the villagers, AMORE’s proponents concluded that the island also needed to have a reliable and sustainable water system if they were really serious about improving lives here.

Three years after it had its first taste of electricity, Kahikukuk got the first solar-powered water system in the entire ARMM. The system consists of a confined well, a 0.75-horsepower submersible capacity pump driven by a 320-watt peak solar photovoltaic power cell, an elevated 8,000-liter reservoir, and a 1,000-meter pipeline that delivers the water to six tap stands.

The heart of the system is approximately 300 meters away from the village, but the taps are right in the community itself, sparing villagers a long walk for water.

	GONE are the days when women spent time and labor to get water from a murky well. [photo courtesy of AMORE]

The water pumping system requires no fuel deliveries and needs very little maintenance. Most importantly, a solar pump produces the most water when it is needed the most — when the weather is sunny and dry.

“The water from the well is now very good,” says Jurail as she collects water from one of the taps. “It’s clear and clean. You can’t compare them to our traditional wells.”

Indications are health conditions here have improved since the system was installed. AMORE workers say that prior to the project’s implementation, the Tongkil municipal health office had told them that four out of 100 people fell sick because of one waterborne illness or another. But since the project’s completion, no cases of such diseases have been recorded.

Mayor Sahidulla also says the system has helped the island so much that grateful — and relieved — villagers have offered prayers to thank Allah for the potable water that they now enjoy. Seconds Muhalli: “Its Allah’s gift to us. He answered our prayers. Villagers were overwhelmed. The clean water resources became (the) talk of the town.”

And probably the rest of Sulu, where even the capital has been having problems with a steady water supply since the 1980s. Recently, though, another community in the province received an AMORE water project. Although not solar-powered, the system installed in Siasi town is bigger than Kahikukuk’s, with 17 communal distribution points and transmission pipes that run more than 7,000 meters. (Siasi’s gravity-type water system is spring-fed.)

But residents here are content with their modest system. They even say that so long as the sun shines, they will have water.

They now only use water from deep wells to do laundry. And with less time spent fetching water (and digging wells), families have been bonding more even though parents allocate additional hours to work.

Teacher Muhalli waxes poetic when he talks about what they have now. “Water is the life of man,” he says. "Safe water is as precious as my boys."