Members of Regional Sector Commission in the field of Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS RSC) from North Development Region gathered today, on 7 February at South RDA  at their second meeting. The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment (MARDE), local public authorities, service operators, GIZ and South RDA.

At the beginning of the meeting, Serafima Tronza, senior consultant from MARDE Division for water resource integrated management policies, expressed the belief that a participative approach in decision-making with impact for the region will strengthen the inter-municipal cooperation in the WSS sector.

As the co-chair of the Regional Sector Commission in the field of Water Supply and Sanitation from South Developemtn Region, Ion Gudumac, the president of Leova rayon underlined the importance of establishing the regional sector commissions. These structures, with assistance from GIZ experts shall strengthen the capacities of regional development actors who are part of the main regional forum.

Maria Culesov, South RDA director pointed out that the relevant commission will examine and approve development priorities of the South Region, promote regional infrastructure projects among donors and investors, examine with specialised independent expert support the project pipeline, various surveys, analysis and recommendations for the formation of a regional vision on the development of the Water Supply and Sanitation sector.

‘We hope that, after the most serious problems of the South Development Region have been identified with GIZ expert support, we will find together the best solution for each problem and prioritise the infrastructure projects that we should focus all our efforts on’, specified South RDA director, Maria Culeșov.

In his turn, Denis Parea, GIZ/MLPS national advisor in Regional Planning and Programming reconfirmed that the German Development Cooperation through GIZ is open to provide the Commission with necessary support to carry out its mission efficiently.

‘We intend to assist you in assessing the situation in the given field, to see what are the common problems, cooperation possibilities and development opportunities of the Water Supply and Sanitation sector. Our goal is to build in the South Region a platform for sector governance’, specified Denis Parea.

Further, taking into consideration the Report’s data on the current situation in the Water Supply and Sanitation sector from South Region, based on the results of several questionnaires completed by the local public authorities level II and WSS operators from the region presented by Ludmila Gofman, GFA/GIZ national expert, the members of WSS RSC strongly discussed the most serious problems each rayon faces in the given sector.

Also, the ongoing and planned projects on the rehabilitation and modernization of water supply and sanitation infrastructure were mentioned, as well as those for which the local public authorities are in search of additional funding sources.

In relation to regionalisation of WSS services, Liliana Belecciu, MARDE national consultant on regionalisation pointed out to the legal and institutional framework opportunities for the development of a sustainable service. In her turn, Ecaterina Tataru, senior inspector of the Division for environmental expertise and authorisation from the State Environment Inspectorate provided relevant details on the authorisation to special water use.

WSS RSC was established by the South RDC Decision no.2/03 from 29 June 2017. Also, at that time South RDC approved the internal working rules of the established structure. The functionality of the Commission will be ensured by South RDA with the support of the ‘Modernization of Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova’, implemented by the German Development Cooperation through GIZ.

For the record, at the first meeting, the members of WSS RSC elected Ion Gudumac as co-chair. He is the president of Leova rayon. The co-chair from MARDE is Serafima Tronza, senior consultant.

As part of its work, WSS RSC will debate draft decisions elaborating recommendations on them, which will be further, presented at South Regional Development Council (RDC) meetings.

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The project ‘Modernization of Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova’ (MLPS) is implemented by the German Development Cooperation through GIZ in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment and is financially supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Union, the Romanian Government, the Swedish Government and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).