Македонски центар за меѓународна соработка - МЦМС

Municipality of Jegunovce is a rural municipality comprised of 11 villages with 10.790 residents. Some of the villages have their own local water supply systems, but due to the bad maintenance, low water quality and technical problems, they face serious problems with the water supply.

The overall goal of this project was to provide access to sufficient quantities of healthy drinking water for the communities in Jegunovce municipality. The project purpose was to sensitize the residents about the need of individual connections with water meters and payment for the water coming from the new waterworks in Jegunovce municipality.

The target group is comprised of the residents from 11 villages of the municipality of Jegunovce as well as Ozormište village in Želino municipality. Direct beneficiaries are 8,446 residents from 1,962 households in 12 settlements. In addition, direct beneficiary is also the municipal public utility “Jegunovce”. The target area was rural and the project was implemented in all 11 villages of Jegunovce municipality and in Ozormište village.

The project contributed for raising the awareness of the residents on using the water supply systems and payment for the consumed water/ service as well as strengthening the need of the users to set individual connections with water meters. These results were realized through the following activities:

Preparation of campaign: This activity included designing of slogan and promotional material as well as meetings with the management of primary schools, municipality and local civil society organizations for detailed planning of activities. Two restricted calls for procuring the services were opened for the design, preparation and printing of promotional materials and slogan. At the first call in 2008 the offered solutions did not meet the quality criteria, so the call was repeated again in 2009. The selected slogan was “Pay your Bills for Healthy Water”. Total of 2.200 mugs, 2.000 bags, 2.100 lighters, 4.000 leaflets/ posters, and 4.000 pens with the logo and the slogan of the campaign in both Macedonian and Albanian language were prepared.

Informing the population: The residents were informed through the informative meetings and distribution of informational package.

The informative meetings were held in November-December 2009/2010 in 12 villages from the target area, with participation of around 650 residents. Previously in order to better prepare for these meetings and to provide participation of the residents a meeting was held with the mayor of Jegunovce municipality and with the chairmen of all local neighborhood units. During the meetings, the mayor, secretary and responsible project officer informed the residents on the construction of the waterworks and the conditions for installing individual connections. The meetings were facilitated by the representatives of the municipality.

The informational packages were distributed to every household by the representatives of the municipality. Total of 1.970 informational packages, including bag, leaflet, mug, lighter and pen, in Macedonian or Albanian language, were distributed. The posters were placed on the bulletin boards of the municipalities in the villages and other public and business facilities.

Education of students: six interactive educational classes and one quiz were organized for the students. Ruska Miceva was hired as external consultant to deliver the educational classes and to design the quiz.

The educational classes were intended for the students from fifth to eighth grade from the three primary schools in Jegunovce, Šemševo and Žilče. The classes included presentations on the importance of clean drinking water, the sources of its pollution and consequences from using polluted drinking water, the purification methods and significance of water as natural resource. The students also had an opportunity to see the animated movie “Our Earth” from the green education package. Translation was provided for the students from Šemševo. Total of 225 students took part in the classes.

On December 12, 2009 an educational competition was held in Jegunovce primary school, which included essay writing on “Every water drop matters”, drawing on “My planet is thirsty” and quiz with different questions referring to the “Water facts”. 36 students participated in the quiz, in the presence of the teachers, municipal representatives, MCIC and media. All participants received water-themed gifts, while the primary schools received encyclopedia of natural sciences for their libraries.

The implementation period was July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009.

Information on the project was broadcast on two local televisions, TV Kiss and TV Menada. The assumption that the local neighborhood units, schools and residents of the target area will be willing to take part in the project was true.

Municipality of Jegunovce as well as the local neighborhood units and schools were involved in the project. MCIC was responsible for the implementation and the decision making. Responsible project officer in MCIC was Daniela Stojanova from the Civil Society Department. Dimce Mitreski, head of the Development Department, monitored the project implementation and provided guidance for its realization.

The risks referring to deterioration of socio-economic situation in the target area and the possible lack of cooperation with the local residents, schools and local neighborhood units did not come true. In order to reduce the possible risk, the responsible officer had several meetings with the municipality, primary schools and a local civil society organization and they were also involved in the planning and implementing the activities.

The project was funded by the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) and the budget amounted to MKD 901,683.

Извршно резиме од проектот.