Форуми во заедницата

  On January 27, in the big hall of the Municipality Resen, the third forum session of the Community Forums Programme took place, attended by approximately 70 citizens.

    The members of the working groups, established in the previous forum session, presented to the Forum participants the ideas and projects to be chosen and implemented in the following period, which the citizens consider to be of priority.
    The first working group presented the problem analysis in the area of pollution of the water, the air and the soil from excessive use of chemicals and fossil fuels, after which a number of solutions were proposed to address the problem, including a laboratory for investigating the presence of pesticides in human blood, as well as in the flora, fauna, soil, water, and air; lobbying for the passing of a law to limit the use of chemicals; establishing an institution to measure soil pollution; educating the population on the proper use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers in fruit production; as well as construction of a water treatment plant on Golema Reka, before the flow of the river into Resen for purification of polluted water. 
    Mende Karapalevski, presenter of the second working group, presented the problems with the low level of environmental awareness among the citizens of Prespa, as well as the ways to raise environmental awareness by creating a local public service media outlet (a TV station), campaigns to educate young people about environmental awareness, introducing environmental classes in the school curriculum, and establishing an institution or center for long-term awareness raising.    
    Muzafer Murati, representative of the third working group, had a presentation on the problems with the treatment of solid waste and wastewater, followed by proposed sollutions to this problem, including provision of adequate containers for waste collection; waste selection; education of the population on proper disposal of solid waste; solid waste recycling machine; construction of sewage networks in all settlements, especially in coastal ones; as well as construction of a treatment plant for purification of waste water flowing into Lake Prespa.
    Goce Markovski, presenter of the fourth working group, emphasized problems with the water potential and water supply in Prespa, for which a number of solutions were proposed, such as digging up a new deep well for the city waterworks, finding out new sources of drinking water, digging up new wells in the settlements that don’t have sufficient quantities of water, reconstruction of the current waterworks network, as well as the need to educate the population about the proper use of drinking water.
    In the next period, additional workshops are scheduled to take place, where citizens will identify one main problem to work on in the future forum sessions and for which the bulk of the programme funds will be allocated. 
    This programme, whose main objective is direct involvement of citizens in decision-making on priority problems, has aroused a lot of interest among the citizens and has encouraged their participation in the projects realized with the funds that the Municipality Resen will get from this programme, in the amount of MKD 8 million, of which MKD 6 million are provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), while MKD 2 million are a contribution of the Municipality Resen.
    In addition to the municipality of Resen, the Programme includes seven more municipalities in this stage, and in the next period the plan is to include a total of 25 municipalities in Macedonia. Four more sessions are planned to take place before the end of the Programme.