DUSHANBE, September 29, 2009, Asia-Plus — A roundtable meeting entitled “Dialogue for Coordination of Drinking Water Supply to Rural Areas” has opened in Dushanbe today morning.
Organized by the UNDP CO in Tajikistan in cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the meeting is considering rural water supply issues. The meeting participants are also expected to discuss the draft law on safe drinking water and drinking water supply.
To provide the rural area with safe drinking water is one of the priorities of the GoT Action Plan and the UN Development Program in the country for years 2005-2009.
With financial support from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the United Nations Development Program has been implementing the project, Dialogue on Improved Implementation and Sustainability of Water Supply Projects in the Rural Areas, under which the efforts of local communities, interested governmental bodies, donors, international and nongovernmental organizations will be unified, in order to establish a commonly agreed approach in implementation of water supply projects in the rural areas. A number of meetings have been conducted at local and inter-ministerial levels to identify existing problems and ways to solve them. These meetings have discussed issues of enhanced collaboration and coordination in regulatory, organizational and technical matters, as well as funding arrangements in the area of rural water supply.
Within the project, the Coordination Center for Water Supply and Sanitary is being set up at the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Water Resources (LRWR). The main objectives and goals of the center include organization of elaboration of legal documents, initiation of carrying out reforms, coordination of implementation of specific projects.
This project is implemented in the context of “Water for Life” International Decennium of Actions (2005-2015) and to support governmental programs for improved water supply to Tajik population.
