Citizen Action Brings Pure Water to 467 Households in Zberoaia
Irina Cojocaru carefully fills a glass with crystal clear water from the tap and drinks it with pleasure and pride. Her dream has finally come true. Now she doesn’t have to walk several kilometers uphill to fill buckets from small springs. Nor has she to boil yellowish water any longer from a well her family uses for irrigation and watering cattle. She is firmly persuaded that the quality of water in her village even surpasses one found in Chisinau, Moldova’s capital.
According to the 2003 Ministry of Ecology report, Moldova is facing a major water crisis. More than 80 percent of the primary drinking water sources are highly polluted, with many surface waters contaminated with nitrates.
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| Irina Cojocaru draws water from the tap |
The village of Zberoaia, a small community of 2,000, is located on the Prut River on the border with Romania. As with many rural communities in Moldova, it strives to cope with basic services’ problems inherited from the Soviet system. Badly deteriorated roads, lack of centralized gas and water systems, and scarce potable water resources are just a few of the many issues that make Zberoaia’s much like the rest of rural Moldova.
But unlike many other places, Zberoaia has a great natural advantage – underground springs of excellent water quality. Located just five kilometers from the village, such a water source had never been used for the community’s benefit.
When Nadejda Darie, the village mayor, initiated the water system project, some residents were still skeptical, and only 467 out of 630 households signed on to participate. However, as the project progressed, in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and USAID Local Government Reform Project (LGRP), each participating household contributed 250 MDL (total 110,000 MLD in cash, or $8,000) for necessary water distribution equipment. Each family also pledged five days of volunteer work to hand-dig the 15-kilometer trench to bring the spring water to village houses. After the system was installed, and all households were metered, its operation was passed to The Little Spring, a local NGO. Darie, the mayor of Zberoaia since 1989, firmly believes that the water project would never have been fully successful if not for the USAID project. “It enlightened our minds; it taught our “baby” to walk.”
To ensure long-term sustainability, LGRP helped to set up an automated billing system and trained the NGO accountant to operate the system to collect revenues. It also furnished a maintenance shop with tools and spare parts needed to provide prompt and high-quality service to consumers and general maintenance to keep the system operational.
The Little Spring has proven to be an excellent partner for the village government, setting up realistic market-based tariffs for water consumption, rigorously collecting revenues and shutting off non-payers. “We are very serious about that. If a household doesn’t pay for a month, we send it a written warning. If we receive no payment for two months in a row, then we disconnect,” explained Darie.
Since the new water system began functioning, 20 houses have been disconnected, but only temporarily until payment was made. In such a tightly woven community news spreads quickly. “If one is disconnected, his neighbors will find out soon. Soon the whole village will know and start talking about you. It’s a big shame not to pay while others strive to do,” continued a smiling Darie.
Broad-based cooperation between the local mayor and the community turned a dream of many years into reality. Now Irina and her fellow villagers can enjoy pure potable water equal to or better in quality than in most western countries. Through the project the villagers also learned that it is their ingenuity and initiative that can actually make a difference.
“It’s been a great educational process for us. People have finally understood that they could make changes with their own hands,” summarizes Darie.
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