The 6th Workshop in Regional Planning for Water Supply And Sanitation

The North, Central and South Regions of the country, have been actively involved in the initial processes of regional development, since 2010. It has been carried out within the framework of regional policy drawn up by the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction. At the regional level, it is required to have more efficient public services in water supply and sanitation (WSS), including optimization of the quality level for these services through modernization in accordance with European standards, as well as provide step-by-step process of these services to national systems.

In this sense, this process focuses on the involvement of representatives from the Working Group, as well as other actors interested in making decisions for the service desired within the framework of the specialized workshops. They are organized into three regions-North, Central and South and are meant to build upon the capabilities of sector planning at regional and local levels. During December 2012-February 2014 there have been 5 workshops organized which focused on:

• Initiation of participants into regional and sectorial planning processes (December 2012);
• Confirmation and elaboration of the data on the current situation in the field of WSS and, in a participatory manner, of the vision for the service level of organizations and management of water and sewerage networks at the regional level by the year 2018 (March, 2013);
• Presentation of materials relating to the existence of water sources in the region and by conducting planning exercises in every district (July 2013);
• Completion of sectorial plans launched in the districts records workshop No. 3 and the supplementary information submitted by the regions that forecasts the development of WSS by 2020, putting into discussion of gender aspects in sectorial WSS, the identification of hazards and the possible project sustainability in the WSS sector (Oct 2013);
• Presentation of integrated WSS systems, selection criteria, submission by means of Possible Project Concepts (PPC) (Feb. 2014).

In this context, the sixth workshop took place on regional planning in the area of water supply and sewerage system in the south region, which had as its objective the presentation of Regional Sector Program of the WSS sector, within the framework of the public consultation phase, including stage comments received from South ADR and their inclusion in the current version of the document.

This workshop was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction, the Ministry of Environment, local public authorities, representatives of the region's water operators, consultants from GIZ, and specialist from the South Regional Development Agency.

The workshop results were analyzed from previous workshops and the Regional Sector program was presented for the WSS sector for the south region that pointed out specifics and particularities of the South Region.

At the end, to identify actions to be undertaken, the members of the working groups praised the program and by the end of May to early June, is expected to begin public hearings on this program.