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Kick-off meeting in Macedonia (FYROM) - Water and Sanitation Safety Planning

Aim and activities of the project on Water and Sanitation Safety Planning for environmental education in schools were discussed with staff of the target schools; municipalities were visited.

13.04.2014 |WECF

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A kick-off meeting with the two directors of five target schools, located in two Macedonian municipalities Arachinovo and Vratnica, took place in February 2014. Representatives of WECF and the local partner JHR explained and discussed the WSSP project with staff of the target schools.

The aim of the project is to assess the risks and safety of the local water and sanitation systems, to find out the causes of the risks and problems, and the possible solutions to solve the identified problems. Both directors welcomed the initiative of the project, explained that such kind of awareness might help their municipalities to raise the existing problems related to water and sanitations issues at Municipal and Ministerial level.
 
WECF and JHR visited both target municipalities. In Arachonovo Municipality there are 4 schools under the supervision of “George Kastrioti“ school, which serves as a base school with responsibilities for the curriculum of them all. There are 2140 students altogether. Partly pupils and teachers use water for drinking purposes from neighboring private houses or public taps. It was said both water sources are not safe and very often the students have health problems such as diarrhoea and stomach viruses.
 
The community Vratnica with the target “Simche Nastovski “school, is situated at the foot of Shar Mountain near the border with Kosovo. The school in Vratnica covers 5 neighboring schools with 256 pupils from the region. The village Vratnica has centralised water supply. According to the geomorphological structure the area has a lot of good quality water coming from springs. However, since more than 50 years the pipes haven’t been renovated. There is no sewage system in the village; the population uses septic tanks, which are insufficiently maintained. The school has 2 septic tanks and sometimes it happens that they overflow.
 
Furthermore, a meeting at the Institute for Public Health, Department for Water Safety was held with the head of the Department, Assoc. Prof. Mihail Kochubovski and his assistant Ms. Mirjana Dimovska. WECF and JHR presented the project and a possible cooperation with the Institute was discussed and agreed on.

Contact:
Bistra Mihaylova
Claudia Wendland

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