Contribution to the Improvement of Water and Sanitation Services through Integrated Regional Planning in Moldova

Provision of public services in Moldova, including water and sanitation, is fragmented and inefficient. There is a significant disconnect between local development priotities and centrally-set sector policy objectives. People from rural areas are particularly affected by territorial discrepancies in accessing quality public services. Moldova has recently started applying the paradigm of regional development. The legal and institutional framework for promoting a balanced socio-economic development has been put in place. GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) with significant co-funding from Romania, Sweden and the EU, has been supporting the process of regional development in Moldova since 2010, via the program “Modernization of Local Public Services“. The project component financed by SDC aims at improving water services provision by ensuring that project identification, planning and implementation, are in line with national strategies and adapted to local circumstances. lt is a combination of technical assistance and infrastructure investment in the South Region of Moldova.

The Moldovan population has equitable access to good quality public services through an improved legal and institutional framework for regional development.

Targets groups for the Swiss-financed intervention are Moldovan sector stakeholders at the national, regional, district and local with whom the multi-level approach is promoted. Final beneficiaries are 2664 people from the three target villages with improved access to safe drinking water. The total number of beneficiaries for the water and sanitation component of the MLPS is 27784 people. Geographically, the water infrastructure component of the project targets one district in the south ot Moldova, with a potential for later extension. However, through the overall operation model, the project covers the entire country.

lncreased level of public utility service provision in the four priority sectors (water supply/sanitation, waste management, energy efficiency in public buildings, regional and local roads).

Results from previous phases:  

SDC has been supporting the implementation of decentralized rural water systems and on-site sanitation solutions in Moldova since 2000. These locally-focused and case-based interventions produced good practices of service delivery improvement from the bottom up. The technology and management solutions promoted by SDC have been integrated into the relevant national policy documents as viable options for rural settlements. SDC has started identifying options for supporting systemic reforms in the water sector at the national level. However, an intermediate layer, making the nexus between local and national level interventions, has been lacking so far. With the given project, SDC intends to fill the mentioned gap, by applying an integrated approach (top-down and bottom-up) for securing the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of investments in the water and sanitation sector.

Phase 1 10.06.2014 - 31.12.2019   (Completed)