ANOTHER foreign-funded project will benefit Dagupeños in terms of health and sanitation as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) chose Dagupan City one of the recipients of the Program on Sustainable Sanitation for East Asia for Philippines (SUSEA-Philippines)

Other recipient local government units of the program are: Alabel in Eastern Samar; Olcom, Leyte; Saranggani City, General Santos and Mountain Province.

The city government will enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Health formalizing and confirming their partnership for the implementation of SUSEA Philippines Program.

The MOA will be signed by Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez, Jr. and Yolanda E. Oliveros, Director IV of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control of the Department of Health.

For the implementation of the project, City Health officer Leonard Carbonell said the city will receive approximately $200,000 aside from the additional grants that will be given by SIDA for other deserving ongoing sanitation-related projects in the city.

According to Carbonell, some of the related activities that may be undertaken in line with the project would be identifying strategies for protecting the existing water source, identifying strategies for protecting water eco-system, and development of surveillance mechanisms for diarrheal diseases.
(CIO/Leziel T. Cayabyab)