The commemorative program at the building of the UN in Sarajevo market the official end of two projects implemented in the last three and a half years in BiH through the Fund for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals, focused on water supply and environmental management.
These are projects called “Securing Access to Water Through Institutional Development and Infrastructure” and “Standardization of Environmental Management: Linking Local and State Institutions in BiH”, which was financed by the government of the Kingdom of Spain for 10 million dollars.
Presenting a project dedicated to water supply and its results, the program manager and coordinator Igor Palandžić said that it was realized in 13 BiH municipalities worth 4,5 million dollars.
“In BIH there are around 140 municipalities and all having water supply. However, this is a question of coverage-how many citizens are connected to the public water supply. In urban areas this percentage goes up to 95 percent, and in rural areas under 10 percent. Network losses are huge, somewhere around 65-70 percent’’, he said.
He said that in 13 municipalities there were various infrastructure activities. He uses Kladanj as an example, where a renovated water supply network was adopted, and that huge losses in water deliveries fell by around 50 percent. In East Sarajevo, a filter plant that has existed for around 50 years was reconstructed, which supplies water to the RS and a part of the FBIH, and which has ensured a quality supply of water.
Also, a budget line for subsidizing social categories of the population with the cost of water bills has been allocated. Palandžić believes that the cost of water supply services in BiH is far from the economic prices.
The Program Manager and Coordinator of the Project dedicated to management Siniša Rodić find that energy efficiency in BiH is at a very low level. With this program, 38 pilot projects worth around 3,8 million dollars have been realized, which has resulted in the reduction of financial costs in public budgets and a significant reduction in emissions with greenhouse effect gases.
“The reduction of emissions, especially CO2, has been reduced by almost 2 tons, which provides enough oxygen for 88,000 people a year. The increase in energy efficiency is achieved by warming buildings with thermal insulation, replacement joinery-windows and doors with energy-efficient, optimizing heating boiler and furnace replacement for fossil fuel furnaces with renewable energy sources. These are the simplest measures that have concrete effects’’, he said.
Participants at today’s meeting welcomed the Resident Coordinator of the UN to BIH Yuri Afanasiev, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to BiH Maria Aurora Mejia Errasquin and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH Mirko Šarović.
Yuri Afanasiev underlined the importance of a large number of educational workshops as part of the mentioned two projects. He said that BiH has a very large loss of water in the water supply network of around 50 percent, and that BiH lags in comparison to neighboring countries when it comes to water treatment and environmental protection, as well as achieving energy efficiency.
Mirko Šarović considers that the situation of water supply in BiH is not nearly as satisfying, which is a key prerequisite for the development of this sector. He said that a major breakthrough was achieved in the field of energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy resources, and that by 2020 BiH is required to increase energy efficiency by 9 percent, and estimates this to be no easy task.
The Spanish Ambassador to BiH thinks that BiH has a lot of natural resources, but that to know how to manage them, and that the mentioned two areas have to conform to EU standards.
(Source: Fena)
