Application of siphon technology to provide community with access to water and increased capacity to face health-related disaster

Access to water has been a problem of Sitio Calaungan in Brgy. Nagyubuyuban, San Fernando City, La Union for decades because of different barriers hindering them from having a clean water source. This resulted in vulnerability issues for the community as they face other calamities with the limited water supply in the community. This is what our innovation hopes to address.

By banking on the traditional short-distance siphoning practices of the community’s farmers, the innovation plans to upscale the idea of using the siphoning method to deliver water to the community for long distances.

The innovation aims to test and construct a water system in the community which will utilize the difference in elevation (source of water) and the community (discharge area), making it possible for gravity to push water to its intended transmission location. By replacing the traditional parts of a water system, including electricity, gasoline, pump, and other spare parts, with a modern engineering mechanism (siphoning mechanism), we will be able to control water transmission and to surge to extend the siphoning distance of water (water source to the community) from around 30-50 meters to an estimate of fewer than 500 meters.

With this, the innovation hopes to significantly reduce the vulnerability of at least 250 residents (63 households) of Sitio Calaungan by providing them access to clean potable water which they can use not only for their daily consumption but for hygiene and sanitation, especially in times of drought, health-related disasters, and pandemic, as well as during typhoons. Ensuring potable and sufficient water is part of disaster preparedness. This is the innovation that this project will pursue.