2009 Year
12-12-2012
The Project “Civil Society Engagement in Water Supply Programs” was implemented by the coalition of three organizations:
The Project considered monitoring of the rehabilitation works of the Water Supply System and reporting the results to the Society. The project considered also exchanging the experience and information with the representatives of all three sectors of the Kutaisi neighboring Districts in the fields, publishing the relevant articles in the local media and providing the information to the public through the local TV companies.
On the basis of the implemented works we planned to gather all needy information, analyze them, form our vision about the issues and publish it as a brochure.
We planned to publish the colored brochure about project activities and role of the Society. We published the Calendar of 2009-2010 in A2 format where there were a short information about Kutaisi Local-Self Government and Water Supply Company, how to get the public information and Human Rights. The goal of the Calendar was also to serve as an information visibility for two years.
In the frame of the projectin April-May, 2009 we conducted inquiry of the public opinion regarding the issues of the Kutaisi Water Supply System Rehabilitation. 1000 respondents participated in the inquiry, out of which 980 questionnaire were good. The results of the inquiry and the comments were put in the brochure as we and number of the Kutaisi NGOs considered it to be effective to disseminate the results and put it into the archive.
The Brochure summarized the project activities and contained the narrative as well as the photo materials. It contains 17 chapters and is spread on 68 pages. The first three chapters contain the small information about the project itself and its implementation, the fourth chapter contains the short history of the Water Supply System of the city. In the fifth chapter “How the Kutaisi water Supply System is assisted?” we described the progressively increasing financial sources, which was allocated and started implementation.
The sixth chapter referred to the inquiry of the public opinion, its results, small analyses and conclusions. We think that it is one of the most interesting chapters. It can be used quite effectively for all three sector representatives in case of their interest. It is possible to compare the presented research with the previously done and published researches, reviewed in the brochures published by us in the previous years.
The sixth chapter describes Government assistances to the Ltd. “Kuttskalkanaly” (Kutaisi Water Supply Company) through the local and central budgets. And also, what are the most important, the Grant of Swiss Development Agency (SDA) and Millennium Challenge Program, 2007 agreement; as well as the credit agreement of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EBRD for 3 million Euros for the rehabilitation works of Kutaisi Water Supply System network. The Brochure does not describe in details all the components to be fulfilled according to the financial plan. At the end of the chapter the opinion of the Kutaisi citizens is given from the result of the inquiry saying that they are grateful for what is being done and on the other hand they (62.2 %) are ready to participate in the project. The citizens realize that not achieving the results foreseen by the project will harm the society (79.8%).
The sixth chapter ends by highlighting the Human Rights Declaration in terms of transparency and inevitability of the civil engagement in the Projects and its decision making and its positive results.
The seventh chapter refers to the forming of the Monitoring Group and its reports. It describes the action plan of the Monitoring Group, the cycles of the meetings of the Monitoring Group with the public, companies, media, local Self-Government and NGOs.
The EBRD financial plan and the list of the city inside water supply network according to the streets (28 streets of the Chavchavadze and Akhalgaxrdoba avenues) to be rehabilitated was used as a primary source for the reports. The list indicated the streets and the pipes according to the length and diameters.
The reports were done only for the units placed in public and unprotected places. In the places under the protection sanitary zone, the group could not get the permission of admission which was mentioned several times in the reports of the Group.
The reports of the Group and our common vision were officially sent to the local Self-Government, MDF (Municipal Development Fund), the Project Implementing Organization and EBRD. Unfortunately despite of our attempts, mutual relations between donors and us were not arranged. The only person, who answered our questions and accepted our invitations, was Khatuna Kunchulia the Millennium Challenge Project Coordinator.
The work of the Monitoring Group (examinations on the spot, reporting) was performed technically in a high level, which supported the forming of the vision for the future development of the field and which was used during the discussions. It is described in the last seventeenth chapter.
The next five chapters refers to the reports of the Project implementation and progress, their comparison and the attitude of the NGO Coalition towards the weak sides of the implementation of the Water Supply System rehabilitation Project, possibilities of improvement and their vision on good implementation of the Project.
The next two chapters contain the article published in the central newspaper and the list of media publications before the publishing of the Brochure.
The fifteenth chapter gives the positive and negative factors of the Water Supply Systems in Imereti, with individual and common components. We had meetings in all eleven Municipalities of Imereti regarding the Water Supply Systems there, TV broadcastings in local TV Companies (“Imervizia” – Chiatura, “Argo” – Zestafoni, Mega TV – Khoni). In every meeting and show we discussed the problems and processes in their municipalities using the Kutaisi example and shared our experience gained regarding the Water Supply Systems.
The last chapter of the Brochure gives our vision. Its main principles coincide with the statement of the Patriarchate made on June 4, 2004. (Magazine “Sapatriarkos Utskebani” (Patriarchate Information), #21, June 11-17, 2004).
The Brochure describes the existing situation considering the system, structure, strategy and style of the primary requirements such as Water Supply and Sewage Systems of the settlements and their inflexible management principles. The chapter reviews our vision regarding the existing situation of resource base, system politics, technologic and structural components in Georgia, and accordingly in Imereti and Kutaisi. All the components are reviewed separately with relevant comments and our vision about the issue.