A group of 38 mayors from South and Centre Regions of the country made a study visit to the North Region on 8-9 December 2016. The mayors have exchanged experience with the representatives of local public authorities (LPA) from Floresti and Edinet rayons and visited successful service delivery projects in the solid waste management (SWM) and water supply and sanitation (WSS) sectors from the North Region of the country.
The event was organised by the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova (CALM) in partnership with the North Regional Development Agency (RDA) and with the support of German Development Cooperation through GIZ under the ‘Modernization of Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova’ (MLPS) project.
Viorel Furdui, Chairman of CALM: ‘We always want to go abroad and visit Germany, Poland, Romania or other countries to embrace their experience and best practices. However, we should understand that in the Republic of Moldova there are, also, projects successfully implemented. Why wouldn’t we try and learn from each other in this respect? It is in this regard that we decided together with MLPS/GIZ and RDAs to facilitate this kind of activities’.
Valeriu Ceapa, Mayor of Floresti town: ‘I hope our experience will help you implement future projects, especially those in solid waste management field. At least in Floresti we have proved it is possible to organise a quality waste management service. There were, of course, challenges, but we have overcome them’.
Ion Bodrug, director North RDA: ‘I am very glad that thanks to GIZ support we can have today a meeting where to share our successful practices, but also challenges we faced in projects’ implementation. We should, also, thank CALM for facilitating these events… Here, in Floresti we probably witness the first or one of the first cases, when 11 municipalities have partnered and created a stock company. And this was for the sake of solving the community’s problem: to have a quality solid waste management service’.
Further, within working groups meetings and sessions several subjects were discussed and namely: the achievements and challenges in the regionalisation of integrated solid waste management in Floresti rayon, the regional and inter-municipal impact in the field of public services provided in Edinet municipality and the role of RDA in the regionalization of SWM services. Likewise, MLPS/GIZ advisors Denis Parea and Igor Neaga have informed the local public administrations’ representatives on the legal provisions in the SWM sector, elements of a SWM system adjusted to the conditions of the Republic of Moldova, concrete steps in establishing a regional SWM system and payment options.
It is to be mentioned that the first visit of this kind was organised in the South Region of the country on 30 November – 1 December with the participation of LPA representatives from North Region. The focus of this visit was on the implementation and carrying out of water supply and sanitation projects.
The project ‘Modernization of local public services in the Republic of Moldova’ (MLPS) is implemented by the German Development Cooperation through GIZ and is financially supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Swedish Government, the Romanian Government, the European Union and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
