Citizens Help to Reform Communal Services
Many city residents in Ukraine still do not realize that it is ultimately they who own and are responsible for communal service enterprises (CSEs)—water, wastewater and heat enterprises—according to a survey conducted by the USAID-sponsored Communal Services Reform Roll-Out Project, which is implemented by the Municipal Development Institute (MDI). MDI used the survey results to involve city residents in an open and honest discussion of CSEs’ problems and how to resolve them. The discussions took place during public hearings that local authorities in five Ukrainian cities of north central Ukraine (Boryspil, Lubny, Nizhyn, Uman and Shostka) organized to gather public support of strategic action plans for reforming their CSEs.
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Public hearing in the city of Berdyansk
Photo Credit: MDI |
MDI’s experience in assisting CSEs with overcoming their problems indicates that public participation in the discussion for development plans is a powerful tool for establishing a dialog between city government and local communities. Such dialog stimulates a sense of responsibility in each party, which is crucial for improvements in the quality of services provided to city residents.
Prior to the hearings, MDI specialists conducted public opinion surveys to determine the level of public awareness on problems with CSEs and the general attitude toward introducing needed changes. In addition to the low level of awareness of who owns CSEs, the survey results identified other important water supply issues, such as the low quality of drinking-water (Boryspil, Nizhyn); interruptions in water supply (Shostka and Uman), water supply rationing (Lubny) and the high cost of services (Uman). Hot water rationing (Uman, Nizhyn and Boryspil), insufficient water temperature (Uman, Nizhyn and Boryspil) and poor quality of district heating (Uman and Lubny) were singled out as the main problems of district heating.
The most active discussion took place at the public hearing meeting in Uman, where participants made important suggestions on improvement to the strategic action plans, including utilization of internal CSEs reserves, alternative funding sources, use of outside investments, putting debtors to work, installation of water and heat meters, establishment of the individual heating systems, and carrying out information and education work with the residents.
Residents of Ukraine’s cities are just learning the art of dialog and constructive cooperation with their local authorities in solving their communal problems. Most participants of the hearings, both city government officials and local residents, believe that the practice of public hearings needs further support and replication in other regions.
USAID has already successfully implemented this model for change in other regions of Ukraine. From October 2000 to August 2005, the USAID Tariff Reform and Communal Services Enterprise Restructuring Project successfully reformed water supply, wastewater disposal and district heating enterprises in 18 pilot cities. The project resulted in an increase in energy efficiency of the CSEs, reduction of their commercial losses, increases in the level of collection for billed services and reduction of indebtedness among the residents.
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