BUTIG, Lanao del Sur – At least two solar driers and a potable water system have finally been completed in Barangay Samer of this far-flung town, ending the residents’ hard time in drying their farm produce and fetching water from a deep well for daily use, officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) announced Friday.

The projects were funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through the ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP) early this year, Hadja Naila Salik said.

The same village also received in recent turnover rites a multi-purpose center, two units of latrines and three laundry sheds constructed by the ASFP under the Community Development Assistance (CDA) through the ARMM’s Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), said Salik, one of the ARMM’s information officers.

As this developed, Samer People’s Organization president Hadji Alawi Amatonding warmly welcomed the facilities, which he described as “much-needed projects” in their village.

“These projects, particularly the water system and the laundry sheds, are of great help to this barangay especially for our resident-women,” Salik quoted Amatonding as saying.

Mayor Dimnatang Pansar of this town thanked ARMM Regional Governor Datu Zaldy Uy Ampatuan for ordering the construction of the projects here in “immediate response” to his previous request.

“We are very thankful that we have this multi-purpose center where our people can hold various activities, the solar driers where our farmers can easily dry up their crops, the communal toilets which are situated near the Madrasah (Arabic School), and most of all the potable water system,” Pansar said.

The ASFP management office has been implementing socio-economic development projects primarily in the distant villages in ARMM, which comprises Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Maguindanao, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi provinces and the city of Marawi.