The Minister of Environment and Physical Planning Nurhan Izairi, Swiss Ambassador in the Republic of Macedonia H.E. Stefano Lazzaroto and the Mayor of Kochani Municipality Ratko Dimitrovski addressed the Third Public Presentation on Bregalnica River Basin Management held today in Kochani.
– The implementation of this Project which is implemented in 15 municipalities in the region of Bregalnica River Basin, I am certain, will contribute to stable socio-economic development of the region, stimulation of industry, agriculture and tourism. Enforcement of the Law on Waters and improvement of the quality of water and sanitary services in Bregalnica river basin are the main expected outputs. The Project is designed as pilot project for waters management on the whole territory of the country, said Minister Izairi.
The Project is financed by the Swiss state secretariat for economic affairs SECO and implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy and municipalities in the region.
The project itself consists of two components: Preparation of Management Plan for Bregalnica River Basin and implementation of small infrastructure projects.
The final version of the River Basin Management Plan including analysis of the current state and scenarios of possible state of water resources in the next 20 years is expected to be finalized by September 2015 at latest.
As far as small infrastructure projects are concerned, the implementation of the first public call is underway. As a reminder, under the first call, all municipalities received 50.000 CHF each and the implementation of selected projects is underway. The second call concerns projects valued from 50.000 to 500.000 CHF. Projects under the second call are expected to be implemented by the end of 2015.
In the frames of the visit, Minister Izairi attended official putting into operation of a new well field Grdovski Orman, which is the first fully implemented project from among the first 15 small infrastructure projects.
The well which provides additional 30 l/s provides stable system of water abstraction and uninterrupted water supply even in peaks and summer months. Together with this well, the overall capacity of the water supply system has been raised to 280 l/second.