The Rural Water Supply Program, carried out by the Albanian Development Fund, continues its cooperation with the Water Supply and Sewerage Company. One element is that of the exchange of experiences and best practices shared during their operation and maintenance.

In this regard, after the study visit in November 2019 at the UK Company in Lezha, the second study visit took place in Kosovo, more specifically in the Regional Water Company "Hidrodrini" (K.R.U) – in Peja, under the direction of Mr. Agron Tigani.

The main focus of the meeting was “The impact of regionalization water services on Sustainable Operation and Maintenance in Peja ". There were present the Director of the FUZR III Project, Mr. Ulrich Sammet, FUZR III AHT Project Manager Consul Aqua Herrie Heckman, the Albanian Development Fund representatives; Project Manager Mr. Leonard Miloti, Contract Manager Mr. Avni Dervishi as well as the leading and technical staff of the WSS Companies of Tropoja, Mat, Dibra, Ura Vajgurore, Devoll, Himara and the WSS members from the Municipality of Klos.

Both UK Companies are among successful cases part of the project, where the best procedures have been applied, which are based on institutional support, benefited from projects similar to RWSP III.

The company "Hidrodrini" initially presented a summary of the Regional Company, business processes and its management. The first steps for the Regionalization of Water Companies in Kosovo took place in 2004 and it was completed in 2006. Previously, there were 25 Water Supplies, which are now grouped in 7 large companies (one of them "Hidrodrini" K.RU). In the following, Mr. Tigani underlined the regionalization process positive impacts:

  • asset valuation
  • resource optimization
  • covering operation and maintenance costs
  • financial consolidation (through tariff unification, financial system database and joint reporting to the shareholder - Government)
  • the same standard in services and integration of rural systems
  • increased donor interest in financing large-scale projects

Despite the frequent challenges of refusing to integrate specific companies in the process and the opposing stands of Municipalities, regionalization ensured that there was no reduction of staff (4.5 employees per 1 thousand customers) and as well as enabled a higher involvement of experts in the field on the Board.

Currently, it is completed and continuous its operation Peja’s ITUN (donated by KFW), which discussed on field visit. During the visit, representatives of Water Supply were closely acquainted with the processes that implemented in this plant and its treatment stages.

In addition to the study visit, closing seminar discussed on the Companion Measures of RWSP III, and also the latter accompanied with its field study in Valbona on April 15, 2022.