On the 8th of November 2005 the official opening of the heating season was held in the premises of the dom by Borodiya Str., 62 in Zhytomyr in participation of Mr. Heorhiy Buravkov, the City Mayor. Now onward, the inhabitants of this multi-storeyed building will get heat and hot water from the equipment installed by the community within the framework of the local sustainable development project, which was implemented with support of UNDP/MSDP.
Mrs. Valentyna Zadereyko, the old dweller of the building, says: “I have lived in this dom for 21 years. It’s been a long time I had to stay at home during the autumn-winter season dressed like a cabbage – in thousands pieces of clothes. I often slept in a sweater…” The inhabitants tried a lot of ways to solve the problem, and one day they found information about the Municipal Sustainable Development Programme, which launched the activities in the municipality in 2004.
The inhabitants went through the whole way of bringing all people together and creating the Neighbourhood Organisation. With the help of MSDP and Municipal Support Team specialists they created a functional group, defined the list and sequence of activities. Functional group members on their own prepared the estimate of the project, bought the materials, fulfilled activities on design, assembling, repairing, and construction, found the contractor to implement the technical works. Eventually, the heat generating equipment was installed in the basement, and today it was put in operation. Mrs. Olena Ursu, the Monitoring and Communication Officer of UNDP/MSDP, attended the event and interacted with the local community on behalf of the Programme.
Similarly, 5 other projects in Zhytomyr are on their final stage of implementation. Their total cost was about UAH 566,000. Over 1300 persons will directly benefit from their implementation. Mr. Heorhiy Buravkov, the City Mayor, told during this presentation: “The experience of such cooperation showed us how problems of the living neighbourhoods can be solved when people are their own masters”.
