PRESENTATION OF AWARDS REGARDING THE PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY COMPANIES

At the workshop which took place today in Prishtina, organized by Water and Waste Regulatory Office (WWRO) in cooperation and with the support of Swiss Office which has funded the project regarding performance monitoring of water companies, were represented performance assessment results of 7 regional companies that provide water supply and wastewater services in Kosovo.

In this meeting representatives of all relevant institutions of water service sector in Kosovo have participated such as: Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP), National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), donors (KFW, SDC, ZNKE), Association of Water Supply Companies (SHUKOS) etc., the WWRO announced water supply companies that have demonstrated the best performance during 2008.

WWRO presented two awards based on the performance assessment results for the year 2008:

(i)       Award for best performance in 2008:
        Regional Water Company – “Prishtina” J.S.C , Prishtina

(ii)      Award for most improved performance during the period 2007-2008:

• It enables WWRO to monitor the licensed companies regarding their compliance with the obligations set forth in legal framework and with the service licenses;

• In this way is contributed towards the transparency increase for the work of public water supply companies by publishing their work and notifying the public and the stakeholders with the performance level of these public companies;

• Through performance assessment and company ranking according to the best performance based on key performance indicators, I believe that we are impacting in creating a spirit of competition among water supply companies and I believe that this competition will stimulate companies to work harder and to increase the service quality provided to costumers.

• With this approach a full statement is given regarding the work of water sector in Kosovo as well as the development trends that are useful information for stakeholders.

Except the presentations and discussions regarding the performance of regional water companies in Kosovo, in this meeting were presented the performance of water companies of Macedonia and Albania, from the representatives of both countries.

“Hoping that this cooperation will evolve further and will develop to a permanent cooperation in a form of creating a regional benchmarking system which would be in interest of our countries to have a picture about the position of Kosovo’s companies compared with the companies of other countries and vice versa . I also hope that other countries in the region such as: Monte Negro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia etc. will join to this cooperation idea for the regional benchmark.” added Mr. Lajçi.

Mr. Guido Beltrani from the Swiss Cooperation Office welcomed all the people present and promised that the Swiss Government will continue further to support the water sector in Kosovo. In this respect, he mentioned the project started and financed from the Swiss Government and which has established the Water Task Force, chaired by the Kosovo Prime Minister. With this project the problems of the water sector in Kosovo will be addressed with the purpose to have a better water source management in Kosovo and with the aim to establish a sustainable water and sewerage service sector in the best interest of all Kosovo citizens.