Association 3e and NALED visit the wastewater treatment facilities in Šabac
As part of the "Month of water" reform campaign launched by the Association "3e" and the Network of Inspectors of Serbia together with NALED, the representatives of these associations visited the wastewater treatment facilities in Šabac. During the visit, they got better acquainted with the system’s model of work, with the aim to further present and share the best practice example of the city of Šabac with interested local governments in Serbia.
- Within the project "Public-Private Dialogue for Growth", supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), we are dealing with the topic of wastewater, not only from the aspect of legislation and institutional capacities, but also with the purpose of showing how everything works - from the point of view of businesses, local governments and inspectors - said Srđan Gajić, president of the Association 3e.
In addition to the comprehensive situational analysis of wastewater in Serbia (in Serbian), which was done within this project, we pointed out best practice examples among businesses (in Serbian) in wastewater regulation, and now we want to show such examples in local governments. The Šabac facility is a best practice example that can be applied in other cities and municipalities. The advantage of such a facility is that it shows how local government helps the economy with its investment. Instead of building a complete wastewater treatment system, companies from Šabac and the surrounding area can now only install a pre-treatment system for wastewater, which reduces the cost of investment.
- During the visit, the representatives of the association 3e and NALED learned what technology was used to build the facility, what are the challenges and problems and what can be done in the future to add new functions to the facility, perhaps in the form of bio-facility or electricity production - Gajić added and highlighted that a small number of wastewater treatment facilities are operating in Serbia and that it is necessary to have a hundred of them.
- Improving wastewater treatment is one of the goals of PCC "Water Management Šabac". The next phase is directed at expanding the capacity, while reaching high environmental standards and planned system sustainability, so advice in this direction is extremely important, as well as advice on possible funding sources. This would also improve the functioning of the facility in terms of environmental aspects, because it would ensure more than 60% of energy from its own sources – said the Director of PCC "Water Management Šabac" Jovan Vraneš.
