Opening of Capital project in Prozor Rama Municipality
“Regulation of the Prozorcica Stream and Construction of the Sewage System”
Capital project “Regulation of the Prozorcica Stream and Construction of the Sewage System” was ceremonially opened on July 8, 2010, in the presence of the Mayor of Prozor Rama, Mr. Jozo Ivancevic, the representatives of the three GAP donors: Director of the USAID Democracy Office, Mrs. Dana Begun, and Mr. Mario Vignjevic, Program Officer from Swedish Embassy, GAP staff and citizens of Prozor Rama.
Mrs. Dana Begun, speaking at the opening, mentioned that “the completion of this project ensures better living conditions for the entire community and this project helps protect the environment, improves sanitary and safety conditions, reduces the risk of diseases and infections, prevents flooding that causes significant damage to private and public property, and enables normal and permanent traffic for pedestrians and vehicles.” She has also mentioned that the United States Government has made it a high priority to assist municipal governments with the Dutch and Swedish governments, who have the same strong commitment, as the co-financers of the GAP project, and that they were happy to mark the completion of this project because it was also a great example of local community participation.
Mayor Ivancevic pointed out that cooperation with GAP was one of the most visible and important steps forward for their Municipality, and, regarding the Capital project recently completed, that the value of the project, besides financial support, is certainly in the fact that citizens were participating in the process of selection of their priorities and actively participated in implementation as well. In conversation with Mrs. Begun, citizens of Prozor Rama also expressed their satisfaction with improvements in the work of local government and their communication with local population, and confirmed their gratitude for the support of the three donor governments.
Project “Regulation of the Prozorcica Stream and Construction of the Sewage System” was part of the first CIP adopted by the municipality. Although it was 14th on the overall project priority list, and second on the Infrastructure priority list, it fit the best GAP co-financing criteria. Moreover, during CIP preparation media campaign, this project was proposed by six different groups of people, as their investment priority.
With this project, Municipality was able to regulate 450m of Prozorcica Stream and construct 450m of sewage system onto which 72 households were connected. The total cost of the project implementation was 565,918.14 BAM, where GAP participated with 125,000.00 BAM or 22%, while Municipality, with the assistance from Cantonal Ministry for Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry (Municipality 62,000 BAM and Ministry the rest).
This project resolved vital infrastructure problems in the municipality since it regulated the stream bed, enabling it to seize all the precipitations waters that regularly caused floods in the city. Alone during last year, floods coasted the Municipal Budget by the total estimated amount of 344,778.80 KM. Furthermore, by construction of the sewage system in the area, spreading of waste discharges and bed smell which represented a permanent hazard to the health of humans and animals in the area will now be prevented, and 72 households are now able to be connected onto the sewage system. All citizens of Municipality Prozor-Rama will greatly benefit by the implementation of this project.
Prozor-Rama Municipality has embraced GAP long-term capital improvement planning methodology during GAP Phase II, and has adopted their first Capital Investment Program (CIP) in December 2008. During the preparation of the first CIP, municipality collected 46 project applications, out of which 78% was proposed by citizens, local communities, NGOs, youth organizations, various public institutions and other interested parties. Prozor-Rama has in the following year, 2009, adopted updated CIP for 2010-2011, while in 2010 has decided to start with preparation of Municipal Development Strategy, which will be in line with the CIP.
Prozor-Rama has, thus far, besides the projects at stake, during GAP Phase I, successfully implemented additional two development projects with GAPs assistance, including pavement of the road Scipe-Liske and “Let us be a part of the modern world” within which youth organization Fenix equipped five primary schools in Prozor-Rama with computers and have organized computer classes for pupils. Total investment in these two projects from GAPs side was $30,015, while Scipe-Liske community participated with $2,500 for preparation works of the road pavement.
