On Monday 25 September, the "Nirnova Basin Intercommunal Development Association" (ADI) was officially registered with the Moldovan authorities and presented at a press conference in the Moldovan Parliament on 17 October.
It is the result of several years of commitment and mobilisation by the mayors and Solidarity Water Europe (SWE), as well as the trust and support of the Moldovan national authorities and institutional partners (Artois Picardie Water Agency, Saint-Omer Urban Planning and Development Agency, French Embassy in Moldova, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). This Intercommunal Development Association (ADI) is the first form of association of municipalities in the Republic of Moldova.
A first association of municipalities at the level of the Nirnova river basin.
This association of municipalities is part of the ambitious reform process initiated by Moldova on the way to European Union integration, in particular the transformation of public action. The Intercommunal Development Association (ADI) "Nirnova River Basin" aims to bring together all the communes of the river basin, comprising 30 villages located in the districts of Hincesti and Nisporeni (raïon), with a population of approximately 45,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom live in rural areas.
The member communities of the Association for the Development of Intercommunal Cooperation (ADI) are committed to jointly establishing water resource management in accordance with the principles of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), where water is a limited and vulnerable resource essential for sustaining life, the environment and development.
The EU's support for water in Moldova has materialised through early cooperation with this group of municipalities.
The EU4Environment Water and Data programme (since 2022) and the EU Water Initiative Plus project (2016-2021) have engaged at the level of the Intercommunal Development Association (ADI) in the Nirnova river basin, recognising that better water management requires management at the local level.
Under the EU Water Initiative Plus project, the development of a Master Plan for the Development of Water and Sanitation Services, at that time unofficially associated with the Intercommunal Development Association (ADI) in the Nirnova River Basin, and the EU4Environment Water and Data programme, provided support to this Association for the selection of an operator for the water and sanitation services operator, particularly in the southern sub-basin, which benefited from investment and support for the incubation of three implementation measures related to the Master Plan for the Development of Water and Sanitation Services.
EU4Environment Water and Data congratulates the mayors and organisations that supported the creation of the Intercommunal Development Association (ADI) and hopes that many projects will emerge with the aim of promoting shared, inclusive and solidarity-based governance of water resources at the scale of the Nirnova River Basin.
Read the press release: https://www.sie-see.org/en/article/moldovas-first-step-towards-intercommunity-the-first-ida-is-created/
Credit picture: International Secretariat for Water - Solidarity Water Europe.