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Energia - Środowisko - Infrastruktura
Dodatek promocyjno-reklamowy do "RZECZPOSPOLITEJ".
21 marca 2006 r.
A chance for quick development of the municipality
Interview with Maciej Ciechomski, Head of Project Implementation Unit in the City and Municipality Hall of Piaseczno
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Piaseczno - your best choice
Józef Zalewski, Mayor of the City and Municipality of Piaseczno
 A substantial part of Piaseczno's large budget is allocated for infrastructure development. One of our priority tasks, for which we have been awarded 150 million PLN in aid from the Community Cohesion Fund, concerns extension of water and sewage system. Other important issues for Piaseczno are road construction (for which the city has been allocating increasing resources) and further development of education facilities.
Piaseczno is consequently pursuing its development strategy for 2005-2015. The municipality is preparing a local programme for revitalization of the downtown area to make it more attractive, functional and useful to people. Early this year we have built a new police station, next to which we are constructing a court building and prosecutor's office. Soon, we will renovate the old market square with a historical city hall.
Come and visit Piaseczno. n
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Piaseczno municipality was among the first 22 applicants from Poland to receive a grant from the Cohesion Fund for improvement of water and sewage system. How did the project come about?
Construction of sewage system has been a priority investment for Piaseczno municipality for many years. Every year the city allocated around 40% of its investment budget to the project. However, despite these considerable outlays, the prospects for timely completion of the project, requiring huge resources, were bleak. The municipality tried to obtain financial support for the investment for a long time; we also applied for European Union funding. Unfortunately, with no success. It was only after Poland's accession to the European Union that we could apply for EU assistance under the Cohesion Fund whose objective is to reduce economic and social disparities between various regions in the EU.
In order to use of the new possibilities offered by the Cohesion Fund, the municipal council decided to solve the sewage problem comprehensively. We prepared the project feasibility study and the EU co-funding application - the two documents necessary to apply for the Cohesion Fund support. In August 2004, these documents were submitted to the European Commission via the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. Our application was approved in December 2004.
What investments are envisaged under the "Water and Sewage Management Programme for Piaseczno"?
The programme envisages extension and reconstruction of the sewage treatment plant for Piaseczno. The plant's capacity of 10 000 cm/d will be expanded to 20 000 cm/d. This investment will consume half of the project budget. The remaining funds will be allocated among three tasks. The most important of them is construction of around 130 km of sewage network and over 3 000 of sewage hookups to buildings. We will also expand one more, small sewage treatment plant and a water pumping station. In line with the decision of the European Commission, the allocated funds must be spent by 2008 and project accounts must be settled by 1 January 2010.
It is already March 2006 and construction works have not yet begun. Will it be possible to complete them within the set deadline?
 This certainly will not be easy. If the contractor tendering and selection process is not hampered, construction works should begin by the end of this year and there is chance that they are completed on time. We can ask why the works have not yet begun since the European Commission issued its decision in late 2004. Well, we must remember that in order to benefit from the Cohesion Fund, the national legislation on environmental impact assessment of projects must be harmonized with the EU directive. Since the Polish legislation was amended only in July 2005 we had to wait until then to align our project documentation with the new regulations. This obviously delayed the project implementation. Moreover, the financing agreement between the municipality and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management - an intermediary body responsible for the proper spending of funds - was signed in September 2005. It was basically from this moment that we could launch the project.
Extension of sewage network is one of the elements of pro-ecological development of Piaseczno. What are other elements?
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Water and sewage management programme
The project involves extension of two sewage treatment plants and construction of a new sewage network.
On 17 December 2004, the European Commission decided to co-finance the project. The implementation deadline is 31 December 2009.
The programme value is estimated at 43.41 million euros (201.88 million PLN). 73% of the investment will be financed from the Cohesion Fund, the remaining cost will be covered by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management - 12.6%, Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management -4.3% and the municipal budget - 10.1%. n
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There are many environmentally interesting areas in our municipality. One of them, apart from Chojnowski Landscape Park, is the river Jeziorka. The river runs into the Vistula through an unregulated channel and there is no human interference to its flow. Unfortunately, the towns located in the river's catchment area, including Piaseczno, contaminated its waters. To solve this problem we decided to create the Association of Municipalities and Poviats from the Jeziorka River Catchment Area. The objective of the association is to jointly develop a programme for water quality improvement in the Jeziorka river and realize relevant investment projects. The association has already commissioned a preliminary feasibility study. This is the first step towards the preparation of an application for Cohesion Fund assistance.
It is also worth noting that some areas of the municipality due to low population did not meet the criteria of first project submitted to the EU. Hence, they were not included in the project on sewage system development. I mean here the region of Złotokłosy and the Chojnów-Pilawa-Orzeszyn area.
We think that these areas could be included into the programme which will be prepared by the Association of Municipalities and Poviats from the Jeziorka River Catchment Area.
Thank you.
Piotr Janczarek
www.gmina-piaseczno.pl
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