Two thousand households get water supply in Bosanski Brod within “SUTRA” program
01/07/2005
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Rehabilitation of water tower within UNDP’s SUTRA project was completed yesterday in Bosanski Brod - Vrela. The rehabilitation of the water tower was undertaken within the infrastructure rehablitation component of SUTRA project at the cost of 54,000 KM. The watertower, that was damaged during the war, will improve or enable water supply for 2,000 households in Bosanski Brod.
Bosanski Brod was one of the seven municipalities included in the first phase of SUTRA that was also implemented in Doboj, Lukavac, Tuzla, Travnik, Derventa and Mostar City. Fourty seven houses in Bosanski Brod were also reconstructed within SUTRA and the total cost of housing and infrastructure in this municipality within SUTRA stands close to 872,500 KM.
Beneficiaries, selected in the process led by the municipal authorities with equal participation of non-governmental and business sector, are also provided with small economic assistance in the amount of up to 70,000 KM per municipality, to ensure sustainability of their return.
In the process of implementation, UNDP worked on transfer of knowledge to Bosanski Brod Municipality, entrusting the implementation steps ranging from selection of beneficiaries related to reconstruction of houses to implementation of tendering procedures to the municipal administration and its non-governmental partners in the Local Action Group (LAG). The water tower was also rehabilitated by giving the lead to municipality to conduct tendering procedure and monitoring of works, with technical assistance of UNDP.
The “SUTRA” (SUstainable Transfer to Return-related Authorities) project is a joint undertaking of EU, UNDP and the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, in cooperation with entity line ministries, aiming at strengthening the local authorities on central and municipal level. The main objective of this initiative is enabling the local authorities to effectively coordinate, strategically plan and successfully manage the return, preparing them for full ownership of the process.
The State Commission for Refugees and Displaced Persons (SCRDP) adopted this project as a joint project and it is a part of the State Strategy for implementation of Annex VII.
The first phase of SUTRA initiative that is nearing its completion is funded by the EU and UNDP in the amout of close to 2.2 million Euro (EU 2 million Euro), while the domestic authorities through the SCRDP provided the matching funds making total of about 4.5 million Euro. In the first phase, SUTRA reconstructed the total of 336 houses in seven municipalities.
EU and UNDP allocated 4.1 million Euro (EU 4 million) for the second phase of SUTRA that started in September 2004. The funding of about 3 million Euro provided by the domestic authorities through the BiH Return Fund, based on the decision made by the SCRDP, brought the total to approximately 7.1* million Euro for the second phase. In addition, pledges have been made by municipalities for local parallel co-financing, which will increase the total amount available for SUTRA by at least further 390,000 KM.
* NOTE: Contributions are made to UNDP in different currencies. That is why values are approximate. Euro is used for easier reference.
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