70 employees of 40 enterprises providing services of water supply and sanitation (WSS) from the Republic of Moldova will be trained in customer management and public relations in the period 15 – 18 September.
This is the first module of the National Programme for capacity development of WSS operators which was launched today, 15 September 2015 in Chisinau. For 2015, the programme provides for the development of training materials for 6 modules selected by ’Moldova Apa Canal’ (AMAC) and their institutionalization through the Technical University of Moldova (TUM), Continuing Education Institute.
During the launch event, Dietrich Hahn, International Senior Advisor on Local Public Services of the German Development Cooperation through GIZ stated: ‘MLPS aims at developing the capacities of WSS managerial and technical personnel in order to increase the overall capacities of service providers. Developed capacities of WSS public service providers are one important pillar for sustainable public services provision and as such contributing to local and regional development’.
Scott Johnson, director of Local Government Support Project (LGSP) in Moldova welcomed the participants present at this event and noted that USAID through the LGSP project ‘will continue to support such activities and complex projects aimed at supporting AMAC operators’ skills’.
Iurie Nistor, executive director of AMAC thanked the development partners for support and assistance and stressed that ‘there are some problems for us, the WSS operators, one of them is that we do not know how and have no capacity to sell water and the first module of this programme will help us in this respect. Another is that we lose a lot of water, about 44% because of outdated equipment. If we manage to solve them, then we will modernize and reform this area ‘.
Sergiu Cecan, head of Relations with regional development institutions Department, Ministry of Regional Development and Construction (MRDC): ‘The programme itself and the first module, which starts today, is very important because it aims to improve relations between WSS operators and the general public. This is the only way for people to realize how important and precious the water is’.
The National programme for capacity development of WSS operators consists of 17 modules. Beneficiaries of this programme are representatives of water-sanitation enterprises, both members and non-members of AMAC, beneficiaries of the National Fund for Regional Development (NFRD) and the MLPS project of GIZ and LGSP of USAID. The programme is organized by AMAC in partnership with TUM Institute for Continuing Education, with support from the Governments of Germany, Sweden and USAID for 2015, and Switzerland beginning with 2016.
The project ‘Modernization of local public services in the Republic of Moldova’ is implemented by German Development Cooperation through GIZ and is financially supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania and the European Union.
