GOVERNMENT PROGRAMME ON WATER SUPPLY OF VILLAGES AND SOCIAL DWELLINGS IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOVERNMENT DECISION NO. 687/1997 AS SUBSEQUENTLY AMENDED AND SUPPLEMENTED 

Legislative framework:

• GD no. 687/1997, with subsequent amendments and completions (GD no. 953/1998, GD no. 888/1999, GD no. 1036/2004, GD nr.1853/2006, GD no. 1304/2007 and GD no. 363 / 2008).

Programme objectives: Building 1,820 social dwellings in 26 localities in 18 counties; introducing centralised water supply systems in order to provide drinking water for approx. 1,200,000 inhabitants in 855 villages in rural areas; ensuring the stringent needs for drinking water in rural areas; raising the community awareness on the need to use drinking water from supply sources in centralised system and educating people on the rational use of the water sources, ensuring water supply for the entities involved in the development of rural localities; creating the basic conditions necessary for a decent life and revitalising some disfavoured areas; rationally managing and using the water sources.

Purpose:  Improving life quality by building social housing and by ensuring the supply of water to over 1,200,000 inhabitants in 855 localities, local institutions and some local businesses in communes, under appropriate technical conditions and at the quality required by the norms in force correlated to the European requirements.

Eligibility: The holder of the general contractor agreement concluded with the foreign entrepreneurs is the MRDH. The local councils are holders of contracts for the objects under their management. The lists with works portfolios shall be constituted by nominations of the County Councils.

Information on this programme may be requested from:  The designated contact person - Eugen Rãdulescu, Inspector General of the Technical Supervision and Consulting Group constituted on a contractual basis within the National Investment Company CNI” S.A.
e-mail: radulescu@cni-gstc.ro

Beneficiaries:  The Ministry of Regional Development and Housing - as investor; the County and Local Councils that are to take over the social housing and water supply systems, free of charge and non- reimbursable.

Programme value: USD 510 mil.

Financing sources: External grant – USD 440 million; MRDH budget - the equivalent in lei of USD 70 million; own budgets of the County Councils to pay endorsements, authorisations, electrical connections and other utilities.

Deadlines for submitting financing applications: The lists of the localities which benefit from social housing or water supply systems were proposed by the County Councils, in each phase of the Programme, and were approved by the MRDH on the basis of allocated funds.

Implementing authority: The Ministry of Regional Development and Housing, through the Technical Supervision and Consulting Group constituted on a contractual basis within the National Investment Company CNI S.A.

Programme duration: The period 2000-2011, which includes 3 stages of financing from external reimbursable loans and from the MRDH budget, as follows:

• Stage I, approved by GD no. 687/1997 and financed by external credits worth USD 340 million, of which:
  • USD 60 million to achieve 1,820 flats (social housing) finalised, with final acceptance and handed over to the local authorities by the end of 2006
  • USD 280 million for water supply systems to 617 localities, completed, commissioned and delivered to the local authorities by the end of the second quarter of 2007, with the guarantee period until 2009.
• Stage II, approved by GD no. 1036/2004, financed from foreign loans in amount of USD 90 million for the water supply of 137 localities more, completed, commissioned and delivered to the local authorities by the end of August 2007, with the guarantee period until the end of August 2009.
• Stage III, worth USD 80 million, included in the Memorandum of the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Tourism approved at the Government meeting of 26.01.2006, for the supply of water to 101 localities more, by July 2009, in progress. USD 10 million were financed from external loans and, fter the entry into force of GEO no. 64/2007, financing shall be ensured from the state budget.

The programme is financed and implemented by the MRDH, by applying GD no. 687/1997 with subsequent amendments and completions.

The MRDH provides financing for the works carried out under GD no. 687/1997 with subsequent amendments and completions through the Economic and Financial Directorate and through a financial body transferred to the Technical Supervision and Consulting Group.

The design and execution of the works were entrusted to the contractors Mivan Kier JV Ltd. and Solel Boneh International - Tahal JV, successful bidders of the international tender in 1997.

The approval of the technical-economic documentation is carried out under GO no. 28/2000 by the Technical-economic Council appointed by Minister’s Order.

The Programme’s organisation and daily implementation, the supervision of the execution in all its stages, the ensuring of compliance with the projects, the verification and monthly payment of the works executed, the ensuring of acceptances and deliveries of the investment objects to the County Councils are carried out by the Technical Supervision and Consulting Group.

By the end of March 2009, 514 investment objects for 829 localities were accepted at the end of the works, commissioned and delivered to the County Councils. Of these, 153 investment objects are still in warranty period, the remainder having final acceptance.