prijava
SARAJEVO, June 5 (FENA) - In order to improve the quality of the environment in the Sarajevo Canton, 35 buildings and facilities will be restored in the Sarajevo Canton thanks to a contract worth 7.6 million KM, to be realized between UNDP in BiH and the Canton.
“At the moment, works are being carried out at 15 buildings, and in the case of the remaining 20, it will be done by the end of the year. The Cantonal Government wants to further intensify its work in order to increase energy efficiency, which can be seen from the fact that six to seven buildings have been reconstructed annually, and this year it will be 35 of them,” told FENA Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in BiH Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov on the occasion of World Environmental Day.
The mentioned activities are implemented within the project "Green Economic Development" with the aim of improving energy efficiency in the canton.
The UNDP is currently working on improvement of the management over the water systems in 18 municipalities throughout BiH through the financial support of the Swiss Agency SDC.
Currently, less than 40 percent of the country's population has connections to the public sanitation system, while 90 percent of the collected wastewater is released into water courses without any treatment, resulting in serious pollution of both, water and soil.
In addition, most of water supply systems in the country are not financially self-sustainable, which represents a long-term risk for the water supply across the board.
“It is a project that focuses on municipal, environmental and economic management (MEEG), through which we want to raise the quality of life in the municipalities through various services, such as water supply. We work in two segments. In legal terms, we help people to put things in order so as to being able to provide better quality of services. The second segment is infrastructural development for all municipalities,” said Khoshmukhamedov.
He announced that the second phase of this project should start soon, during which the utility companies will learn how to improve their services for the benefit of citizens.
The importance of maintaining the water supply system is also evident due to the weather conditions that caused floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina this year and back in 2014.
“It is therefore highly important to improve the capacities of local authorities. That is precisely what I saw last week in the Posavina Canton, where the Government is much more serious and more efficient in dealing with the problem of flooding by investing in restoration of the flood protection infrastructure,” said Khoshmukhamedov.
He assessed as positive the fact that pumping systems are being installed in Doboj, which in the event of floods will enable the water to be pumped out.
“The local authorities there understand that a dollar invested in flood prevention saves seven dollars that will have to be invested in tackling the aftermath of flooding. In this way, they are making sure to keep their cost lower,” said Khoshmukhamedov in an interview with FENA.
He congratulated the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina the World Environment Day, hoping that they would have better air quality.
(FENA) S. R.
