On Tuesday, the 16th of February, the Steering Committee of SDA Moldova gathered in a meeting to examine a series of topics related to the institution’s activities in 2020, as well as the main directions of activity for 2021 - 2022.
Making a retrospective of the most important activities implemented by the institution in 2020, the SDA Moldova management emphasized that, similar to previous years, the institution has focused on ensuring the sustainability of investments in the irrigation infrastructure and supported the management transfer towards the Water User Associations (WUAs), as well as facilitating farmers' access to finance.
Concerning the most important performance indicators of the institution, the executive director of SDA Moldova, Valentina Badrajan, mentioned that all the systems rehabilitated under the Compact Program are reliable and ensure farmers with water for irrigation. The irrigated area and water volumes have been constantly increasing, doubling in 2020 compared to 2019.
At the same time, the activities aiming to support the management transfer of the centralized irrigation systems have reached the objectives stipulated in the Water Management and Hydro-Improvement Development Program for 2011 - 2020. Thus, currently, there are 31 WUAs that were engaged in the management transfer process of the centralized irrigation systems.
Moreover, the SDA Moldova has launched eight new investment projects for the improvement and development of rehabilitated and non-rehabilitated irrigation infrastructure, in amount of 1.5 million US dollars. The impact of these investments will contribute to the expansion of the centralized irrigation systems’ service areas by about 600 hectares and the optimization of the irrigation processes on a total area of over 8000 hectares.
In order to strengthen the capacities of the Compact and post-Compact WUAs to manage the irrigation systems sustainably, the SDA Moldova organized several specialized trainings and workshops for the associations’ members.
In terms of facilitating access to finance, it was mentioned that through the 2KR hire-purchase program, 59 agricultural producers benefited from the procurement of equipment and machinery for intensive agriculture in amount of more than 69 million lei.
As for the entity’s priorities for 2021 - 2022, the SDA Moldova executive director stated that the institution will continue to provide the necessary support to the Government in promoting the irrigation sector reform, to implement projects for modernization and optimization of the irrigation infrastructure transferred to the WUAs, to strengthen the capacities of the associations, especially those newly created, in regard to a sustainable management of the irrigation systems.
During the meeting, the members of the Board approved the work plan, budget and procurement plan of the institution for 2021-2022, the revised policy for prevention and fighting fraud and corruption, the transmission of the investments regarding the partial rehabilitation of centralized irrigation systems in the post-Compact period to the “Apele Moldovei” State Agency.
