USAID Local Government Reform Project Warms Moldovan Neighborhood
Lidia Lazareva, a married mother of two children, is as grateful as anybody in the Sheftelik neighborhood of the Moldovan town of Ceadir Lunga – and perhaps more so than most -- that she finally has a natural gas hook-up to her home.
While most of Lazareva’s married female friends relied on their husbands to haul coal in from the outside shed to heat their homes in the years before they finally received a natural gas hook-up at the end of January, Lazareva did the burdensome task on her own, several times a day during the cold winter nights. Her husband didn’t think it was his chore. Like her friends, she was also responsible for stoking the fire that heated the families three room house. Often she put the night load into the decrepit black stove well after midnight, even though she had risen with the family before first light.
 |
| U.S. Ambassador Heather M. Hodges and Mayor Mihail Formuzal ignite the pilot light for the gas line |
Now that natural gas has come to Sheftelik, thanks in large part to the efforts of the USAID/Moldova Local Government Reform Project (LGRP), which is being implemented by the Urban Institute, Lazareva can spend more time with her children, who often had to stay after school until she got home from work to heat the house.
“Now that we finally have gas, the toughest work will be gone. We will finally be civilized,” maintained Lazareva, as she proclaimed the benefits of natural gas as a clean burning energy source, including the fact that her family will breathe fresher air, and dust and soot will no longer cover her furniture.
Two days earlier, on January 31, 2005, U.S. Ambassador Heather M. Hodges and Ceadir Lunga Mayor Mihail Formuzal ceremonially lit the pilot light for the gas line that now gives scores of residents in the neighborhood an energy source for heating and cooking. Contributions of $14,000 from USAID’s LGRP, $8,000 from the municipality and $1,000 in donations gathered from residents of the neighborhood, financed the cost of the project.
Mayor Formuzal decided to seek assistance in developing the gas pipeline after Ceadir Lunga joined the LGRP initiative, which is aimed at stimulating open and transparent local government responsive to residents and directed at generating better service delivery. One of the first objectives was to develop a community’s strategic plan for Ceadir Lunga using input from city residents. The community decided to place a priority on the extension of a natural gas distribution system to the neighborhood, which includes a large number of young families.
Mayor Formuzal, who said he was initially a bit skeptical that an aid program could give him tangible support when he was first considering LGRP assistance, now realizes that he had been wrong and that the LGRP project has given him quite an education on ways to more effectively run municipal government and improve its responsiveness to his constituents.
“I am glad that I listened,” explained Mayor Formuzal. “Without significant input from my side, I have received much. LGRP gave me the technical assistance, and an understanding of tariff policy. I give high marks to the LGRP and today consider it important to my work.”
Mrs. Lazareva agreed that the program was also vital to her life and work. “Now that we have gas, we can pay more attention to our kids rather than to stoking the fire,” she explained.
Back to Top ^
|
