IMPLEMENT YOUR OWN PROJECT!
Are you a village council head, a village council deputy, or a civil activist?
Would you like to improve substantially the water supply conditions in your village?
We can provide useful information, which might be handy.
We should note that this information is NOT a call for project applications\proposals to get funding from DESPRO.
DESPRO co-funds projects only in Sumy, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts. Selection of projects in these oblasts is conducted once a year and organized by oblast authorities according to a special procedure. Consequently, the information, presented below, might prove useful for village councils from these oblasts, for more meticulous preparation of project proposals. Citizens from other oblasts might use the information from this section as a practical guidance. We are asking not to send your project ideas or proposals to DESPRO as we will be unable to provide financial support for their implementation.
We should also stress that when we mention the projects on water supply condition improvement, we mean construction of a centralized water supply system.
Centralized water supply system includes:
- One or more water supply sources (borehole, piping). We can also consider connection to existing water mains, particularly, in regions with scarce subterranean water resources;
- Pressure-maintaining equipment (water tower, hydro-accumulating station, etc.);
- Connecting and streamlining networks (street networks);
- Individual connections (connection of a separate yard or house) with equipment of metering node.
Generally, projects include three stages of implementation:
1 Planning
2. Construction works
3. Service provision organization.
The following tasks are performed at Planning stage:
- Workgroup formation
It is recommended to form a workgroup from the representatives of village council executive committee, deputies, active citizens.
- Technical solution selection
Guide “Rural drinking water supply”
- Preliminary estimate of future construction cost (Technical and economic substantiation)
At this stage it is desirable to have project cost estimation documentation developed and ready. If it is not developed yet, it is enough to develop a Technical and economic substantiation (TES). At this stage the TES can provide approximate technical and financial data for subsequent decision-making.
- Project development
We recommend you to present your project idea in the form of a project. In this way it will be easier to communicate with all potential partners as well as community representatives.
Format for project development
- Defining the parties, who can join the project implementation
These can include village council, raion and oblast governmental bodies, the public itself, sponsors (for example, local agricultural enterprises).
Reference: Publication “Successfull practices of decentralized service provision”
The following tasks are solved at Construction work stage:
- Development of project cost estimation documentation (PCED)
For construction, development of PCED is a mandatory condition. The task is the responsibility of authorized economical activity subjects, having a special license.
- Selection of a contractor organization
If contractor selection is subject to tender conditions, the tender procedure is used. In other cases it is recommended to hold a contest on at least three cost proposals. In this case the contest jury committee function can be performed by the Work group.
- Construction organization
Organization of construction works should be performed in compliance with all the norms and standards of this sphere. We do not recommend conducting construction works without obtaining all the necessary documents. Beside potential problems with controlling bodies during construction, additional problems may arise at the stage of putting the object in operation, or during the operation itself.
- Attraction of partners’ funds
The following issues should be taken into account in this context. Generally, there are no serious problems with attraction of budget funds. The only problem is that budget funds may get “stuck” in the state accounting service. But this issue lies beyond the limits of our competence, so we are not going to talk about it.
Some difficulties may arise while attracting funds of the public. According to our experience, contributions from the public amount to almost half of the general project cost. Consequently, it is important to attract the funds of public, register them in the right way, and reasonably direct them to the project needs. Unfortunately, the cases of erroneous registering of public contributions are witnessed quite often.
A guide on attraction of funds from the public
- Construction completion
It is important not to forget to perform the necessary landscaping and territory improvement works. Particular attention should be given to equipment of a protective sanitary zone around the water source, and to bringing the look of objects, located within the zone limits, in compliance with the requirements of respective standards.
At the “Service provision organization” stage, when construction works are completed, the following tasks are to be fulfilled:
- Putting the object in operation
Constructed objects are put into operation, as provided by the legislation. Operation of objects, which have not been officially put into operation, is forbidden.
- Registration of property rights
After construction objects are put into operation, property rights on them are registered according to the established procedure.
- Connection of users
This task can be performed at construction stage. If necessary, as street networks are laid, households can equip in-yard pipelines, right there and then. It is important that all the pipelines are laid according to requirements of the standards, such as the distance between the fence and the well, well size, water metering node construction, etc.
- Transfer for maintenance
The choice of a legal form for maintenance of water supply system is the milestone of its further operation. There are several options available for organizational and legal form of water supply operator. Each option has both its advantages and its disadvantages. The choice is yours.
A guide on the choice of an option for maintenance and servicing of water supply system
- Tariff setting
The right of an individual for water does not imply that the water has to be free. The service must be paid for. The tariff must be calculated in such a way, that it covers the costs and sets the basis for future investments, and adopted as provided by the legislation.
And almost the final recommendation
It is very important to study the estimates of service quality, provided by its users, on a systematic basis. Some advice in this regard can be found in the following publication
Improved drinking water supply, as seen by the customers
We wish you luck in the implementation of your project!
We will be grateful, if you use our advice and recommendations, and inform us about successful implementation of your project in any form that is convenient for you.