by Recto M. Mantiza, Jr.

Xavier University Governance and Leadership Institute (XU-GLI) joined its partners in welcoming new members of the Northern Mindanao Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Hub through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony on June 16 at the Local Governance Resource Center of the DILG 10 Office in Masterson Avenue, Upper Carmen.

The new implementers included: Rio Verde Water Consortium, Inc., Safer River, Life Saver Foundation, Inc., GROUP Foundation, Inc., Department of Health (DOH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc., SEEWAY, Inc., and Kyogojo Engineering Service Cooperative.

Representatives from XU-GLI and MWD led the ceremony, which saw the expansion as a way to ensure greater multi-sectoral participation in the hub. It will also strengthen mutual assistance and collaboration among experts and service providers to advance the needs of local water and sanitation governance.

Since 2012, XU-GLI has been a part of the regional WATSAN Hub of the Regional Project Development and Management Unit (PDMU) of DILG-10. The institute was instrumental in the implementation of several projects, which include, the Sagana at Ligtas na Tubig sa Lahat (SALINTUBIG) Program. It also played a role to comply the “soft” requirement of the Bottom-up Planning and Budgeting (BUB), which refers to the capacity enhancement of beneficiary LGUs within Region 10 with regard to the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in the administration of water system.

XU-GLI continues to engage in water and sanitation governance as this is part of XU’s thematic areas for greater societal engagement.