In the village of Hushchyntsi, the benefits of a mains water supply used to be enjoyed only by the staff and pupils of Hushchyntsi Higher Vocational School № 32 and the residents of a five-storey building on Lenin Street. The water supply system, built during the Soviet era, was in need of major repairs. The remaining residents of Lenin Street and the three other streets and their lanes got their water from private wells where, to make the problem more acute, the water level was falling each year. Then the village community created a CBO (community based organization) and applied for assistance to the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project in Ukraine, DESPRO.

As experience demonstrates, persistence on the part of those involved is a common feature of all successful projects. And the Hushchyntsi village project turned out to be a success due to the exceptional persistence in overcoming difficulties shown by the members of the "Nadbuzhzhya" Street Committee CBO.

After establishing the CBO, Hushchyntsi residents provided the following:

=> Social mobilization by shaping positive attitudes to such projects and self-belief within the community;

=> Involvement of the village and rayon authorities in the project;

=> Development of the project’s budget estimate documents;

=> Carrying out of geological survey work;

=> Connection to the electricity supply, installation of a hydraulic accumulator;

=> Construction of a 4.54 km-long water supply system to households.

Work with the community was not plain sailing — at first the village residents had some reservations regarding participation in an international project, which is fairly common in these situations. People did not believe that the financial assistance from DESPRO would be irrevocable, so the CBO members had to explain to their fellow villagers what benefits they would receive through joint participation.

Having mobilized the community, the CBO faced further difficulties. Partly these were caused by the inability of some residents to participate in auxiliary work due to poor health, which led to deadlines being missed.

Another set of problems was related to interaction with the contractor. It turned out that the contractor had changed the method of drilling boreholes, thereby increasing the costs by nearly UAH 32 000. An independent expert had to be brought in to help the CBO in resolving the issue by reviewing the cost of the work through negotiation, thus avoiding a court case that could potentially have dragged on for years.

Nevertheless, the Hushchyntsi village community’s persistence paid off as they successfully overcame all obstacles to provide good quality drinking water to 82 households.

So stars can be reached! •