On October 22nd and 23rd 2020, online conference Energy and Water Efficiency of Water supply services in cross-border area of BiH and Montenegro was held. The two-day conference brought together 105 participants – representatives of public water supply companies, local governments, ministries of water, energy, economy, sustainable development and environmental protection, who had a chance to hear from 16 experts from BiH and Montenegro.
The event represents the first out of three interactive conferences, planned within the project Action to increase energy and water efficiency of water supply services, implemented through IPA CBC BiH-MNE programme. The main goal of this event was to bring together all relevant actors from the water supply sector and create a space where good practices for water and energy efficiency could be presented, along with the project achievements so far.
Ms Nada Vemić Vučković (Center for Energy Efficiency, Montenegro), Mr Gianluca Vannini (EU Delegation to BiH) and Ms Edbera Biković (IPA CBC BiH-MNE programme) welcomed all participants and gave introductory remarks.
Irem Silajdžić, PhD (CENER 21) briefly presented the project and introduced the participants with key project objectives, ongoing and planned project activities as well as four pilot areas in BiH and MNE.
Sanda Midžić-Kurtagić, PhD, director of the National Cleaner Production Programme in BiH moderated the event and led the participants through three sessions:
- Good management for a higher level of resource efficiency in the water supply sector
- Standard Operating Procedures in Water supply companies
- Implementation of measures for increasing Energy and Water efficiency in the water supply sector
After representatives of government and public institutions in MNE and BiH shared their insights on good management in the water supply sector, the project team presented the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), developed with an aim to strengthen the capacity of water supply companies. As a key instrument for the project implementation, this document serves as a guide for all water supply companies striving for minimizing the water losses and increasing of energy efficiency, while fulfilling all regulatory obligations in effect. Later on, representatives of water supply companies explained how SOP enabled their companies to decrease energy and water losses in Tivat (MNE), as well as non-revenue water losses in Rogatica (BiH) and Kolašin (MNE).
On the second day, the conference was wrapped-up with inspiring and drive-changing examples of good practices in EU, but also some of good practices from Montenegro and BiH. This whole event was extremely interactive and participants were very active in discussion, using the opportunity to ask questions and share challenges they face as well as solutions they are testing. In case you missed this interesting event, all conference materials are available HERE.
The project Action to increase energy and water efficiency of water supply services will strengthen sustainable development in the cross-border area, by implementing common activities for improvement of water and energy efficiency of water supply services. Demonstration activities are being performed in four water supply companies: Foča Ustikolina (BiH), Herceg Novi (MNE), Kotor (MNE) and Visoko (BiH). To enable networking of cross-border water supply companies and municipalities, a Platform for knowledge exchange and distance learning is created and it has proven as a very useful tool. Through the media campaign Every drop and kilowatt matters/Svaka kap i kilovat su važni, the project team is raising public awareness on sustainable water use, the amount of water waste and the relation of energy efficiency to water efficiency.
The project is implemented with joint forces of Center for Energy, Environment and Resources – CENER 21 from BiH and Center for Energy Efficiency from Montenegro and funded by the European Union.
More information about the project is available at the official project’s website. For regular updates, please follow project’s Facebook page and Twitter account.