EU funds three water management projects

EU funds three water management projects

Water Directorate head Nikola Marjanović  told reporters that the project entitled "Preparation of the Water Management Information System", worth 2 million euros, will be implemented in two stages in the course of the next two years. Sweden’s Eptisa has been contracted for the projects implementation.

The project is designed to enable better access to data on water resources, as well as to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange of data in this sector and increase water management efficiency.

A total of 2.8 million euros has been allocated to the project "Preparation of Strategic Master Plan for Collecting and Processing Wastewater in Južna Morava", Marjanović said. He added that the project will take two years to implement and will help increase investment into wastewater processing. It will be implemented by the Danish company COWI A/S.

The third project, "Preparation of Action Plans for Remediation of Three Severely Polluted Locations" is worth 550,000 euros and will enable the drafting of a remediation plan for three most polluted locations, the government statement says. The company in charge of implementation will be Denmark’s Niras.

EAR Serbia chief Daniel Giuglaris stressed that assistance in the water management sector not only “brings direct gain to people by improving the water quality but also brings the country closer to the EU.”

Giuglaris said EAR has already started some projects in this domain, adding that Serbia received equipment worth 1.5 million euros to this end.

State Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Danilo Golubović said that from January 2000 to December 31, 2006, the EU provided Serbia with over 1 billion euros worth of aid.

He pointed out that 1.28 billion euros has been put aside for Serbia this year as part of the CARDS program, which will this year be replaced by the single Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance programme (IPA).