The Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Kaja Shukova, held a press conference where she informed about the allocation of funds to the municipalities from the loan from the European Investment Bank for the improvement of the water infrastructure of the municipalities in our country.
The total value of the loan for the project is 50 million euros and it will be repaid from the Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia. The final beneficiaries of the funds from the loan are the municipalities and municipalities in the City of Skopje.
Shukova informed that the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning (MOEPP) will conclude a donation agreement with each municipality, and the funds will be allocated according to a determined methodology for the realization of priority investments for water supply, sewage systems, treatment plants and equipment.
According to the decision of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia on the distribution of funds from the EIB loan under the financial agreement for the project to improve the water infrastructure of the municipalities in North Macedonia, each of the municipalities and the municipalities in the city of Skopje will receive 200,000 euros equally, and from the remaining amount 16 million euros will be allocated according to the index for municipal development and the percentage of distribution by planning regions according to the degree for the period from 2018 to 2023, while the remaining 18 million euros will be allocated depending on the number of population in the municipalities – 70% and the number of populated areas – 30%.
According to Minister Shukova, this distribution is developmental: 46 municipalities will receive funds between half and one million euros, 28 municipalities will receive funds under 500 thousand euros, while six municipalities (7% of the total number of municipalities) will receive more than one million euros.
She added that in the past, the MOEPP has taken a series of steps and activities for the realization of the project – a decision has been adopted to establish a project unit for the implementation of the project, two public calls for expressions of interest for experts in the unit have been published, a project team has been formed from the MOEPP for the implementation of the project, requests were submitted to the municipalities for a list of proposed projects and documentation, and an initial analysis of the list of proposed projects was made according to the established criteria.
On the other hand, the municipalities submitted a list with a total of 373 proposed projects, of which at this moment: the Skopje region has submitted 67 projects, the Vardar region 64, the East and Southwest 50 each, the Polog region 46, the Southeast 40, the Pelagonia region 36 and the Northeast 20.
Minister Shukova also announced that in the next period it is planned to hold workshops with the municipalities in order to explain the process and training for filling out the project questionnaires. Also, the Project Implementation Unit and the Consultant will work on the preparation of the tender files for each of the municipalities.