Kyiv, November 9: The UNDP Project “Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme” supported the 7th International Congress and Exhibition “Institutional and Technical Aspects of Housing Reformation”, initiated by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing of Ukraine. The congress runs on November 8 through 10 at the Kyiv-based International Exhibition Centre.
The congress gathered representatives of government, municipalities, private sector, international projects and programs in order to discuss the following issues: improvement of housing administration, launch of more efficient management and functioning of water supply systems in the communal property through attracting private investments for technical re-equipment, which will lead to better quality of communal services and speed up housing reformation.
The participants were addressed by Anatoliy Blyzniuk, Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing of Ukraine. He noted that the housing sector can’t be non-profit and called on local authorities to elaborate efficient regional programs to solve typical problems of the housing sector with help of investors and international organizations.
Taking the floor at the event, Oleksandr Alipov, Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing of Ukraine said:
Today losses in the housing sector amount to 2.2 mln UAH, salary debts to housing office employees total 65 mln UAH, over 50% elevators in residing houses are out of order, only 7% of solid waste are recycled, while the rest 93% are placed with proving grounds. To solve the stated above problems we lack in money. A special role in this case the government gives to cooperation with international donor organizations, which may help to elaborate efficient mechanisms and use them on practice.
On behalf of UNDP/MGSDP partner municipalities Mykola Usenko, First Deputy Mayor of Novograd-Volynskyi (Zhytomyr region) shared experience of the municipality in solid waste management and creation of the AMCH. According to him, the first successful project in this sector on taking out waste of the private sector was launched in 2006. The thorough situation analysis resulted in a mechanism, which helped to sign agreements with citizens on weekly garbage collection for low payment. In 2009 Novograd-Volynskyi launched separate waste collection. In 2011 this situation improved by attracting investments for purchasing 2 garbage machines and 200 garbage bins to be placed in different districts on Novograd-Volynskyi. Presently, the only problem faced by the city is waste utilization and recycling. Due to lack of money in the budget Novograd-Volynskyi municipality doesn’t allow to purchase innovative machines, while the existing machine allows recycling only 20% of waste. Efforts have also been directed toward enlarging of proving grounds. Successful cooperation with citizens stemmed from communities social mobilization toward involvement in local development projects, launched within the framework of cooperation with the UNDP/MGSDP.
Other success stories of the project participants had an opportunity to read in the book “Solid Waste Management in Ukrainian Cities, Role of Ukrainian Population in Solid Waste Management and Recommendations to Local Self-Government Bodies in Cities”, published by the UNDP/MGSDP in 2011 as well as in other Project materials, disseminated at the congress.
The participants also discussed is there any future for ACMHs (report by V Pogorielova), how to ensure privilege loans for ACMH for energy efficiency improvement (G. Gayda), possibilities of public-private partnership for solution of housing problems (A. Piper) and SWM efficiency potential (Larionov).
The closing two days of the workshop will include discussions on locality landscaping, problems of potable water supply and house reconstruction. The congress is expected to result in declaration with strategic issues on implementation of housing reform in 2012.
For detailed information please refer to Olga Romaniv, UNDP/MGSDP Communications Officer via telephone 063 350 43 92 or via email olga.romaniv@undp.org.ua
