Posusje Municipality
June 17, 2010
Opening of the Project: “Construction of the Water Supply System in Vir”
GAP successfully finished one of many successful activities getting closer to its completion this summer.
The water station in Local Community Vir was ceremonially opened yesterday in the presence of the Director of Sida in B&H, Mr. Anders Hedlund, one of the representatives of the GAP donors (USAID/Sida/EKN), GAP staff, and personnel of Posusje Municipality and citizens of Posusje.
“Construction of the Water Supply System in Vir” was among the top priority projects outlined for implementation in year 2009-2010, and as such was proposed to GAP for co-financing. The cost of project implementation was 772,240.12 KM, where GAP financed 125,000.00 KM or 16.19%, while the Municipality provided the remaining funds from a commercial loan. With these funds, the Municipality was able to construct the main transportable water supply system from Posusje to local community Vir. On the other hand, the pipes used for construction of this water supply management system were purchased with the supply loan granted by the Austrian Government in 2006, in the amount of 1,764,754.29 KM.
Mr. Hedlund congratulated the mayor, his associates and the citizens of Posusje, saying that “ managing to combine various resources to solve a problem of drinking water for 3,500 citizens in Vir and adjacent local communities is a great success, fundamental for the development of rural parts of the Municipality and entire Posusje .”
Project “Construction of the Water Supply System in Vir” will tremendously improve development of the municipal infrastructure, considering that it will resolve the issue of supply of approximately 3,500 citizens from six local communities in Posusje with drinking water. By providing access to drinking water to Citluk, Vinjani, Vir, Zagorje, Podbila and Zavelim communities, development of the rural part which has potential for farmers will be enabled, migrations of young people from these areas will be prevented, and living standards in the rural part of Posusje will be raised. All this will, in turn, improve existential self-sustainability and economic development of the entire Municipality.
Given that Posusje has very limited water supply resources, being one of the greatest limitations for development, the Municipality has invested most of its resources into expansion and construction of the water supply system. Furthermore, the Municipality lacks both sewage system and waste disposal facility, which is seen as a future priority given that the drainage of waste waters poses serious health risks.
While Posusje Municipality has been a GAP partner municipality since December 2005, it has been implementing GAP's participatory methodology on preparation and development of the Capital Improvement Planning since 2007. Ever since then, the Municipality yearly updates their Capital Improvement Program (CIP), with citizens' participation, outlining most important capital projects to be realized in the upcoming five years. The latest CIP adopted for 2009-2013 contained 56 projects, out of which 22% of those was proposed by the Mayor and his staff, while the rest were proposed by citizens, local communities, NGOs, youth organizations, various public institutions, businessmen, and other interested parties.
Posusje has, thus far, besides the project at stake, during GAP Phase I, successfully implemented additional four community development projects with GAP's assistance, including construction of the two sidewalks, construction of a sports filed, and reconstruction of the Municipal City Hall .
Pictures of works on the water supply system in Vir, Posusje 2009…
and from the opening on June 17, 2010
