100 poor families from Curcani locality, Călărași county, will have access to water and sewerage, through a Roma inclusion project financed within the Local Development Programme
The connection of households to public water and sewerage networks, a necessity that in some localities in Romania has been waiting to be solved for more than 20 years, will be realized in Curcani Commune, Călărași County, including with the support of EEA Grants 2014-2021.
The initiative belongs to the Association Center for Education and Human Rights (ACEDO) and the City Hall of Curcani Commune and is part of a more complex project, entitled “Be part of the community! Integrated services addressed to the local Roma community from Curcani and Românești ”, which aims to contribute to increasing the degree of social inclusion of approx. 1,000 Roma people in the commune, through a set of measures aimed at increasing access and quality of education and health services, but also improving living conditions.
With the help of some funds allocated by the Romanian Government, through the National Local Development Program (PNDL), at the level of Curcani Commune, works for the realization of a public water and sewerage network are in full swing during this period. However, not all residents can cover the cost of connecting their own household to the network from their own resources. Following an approach started in August 2021, the project team “Be part of the community! Integrated services addressed to the local Roma community from Curcani and Românești” identified a number of 100 households in difficulty, totaling approx. 500 people. For these, the costs related to the connection to the public water and sewerage network will be borne from the project budget.
Not infrequently, however, connecting a household to the network also involves solving, in advance, some legal issues regarding property. Clarifying the legal status of housing and obtaining property deeds, cadastre or tabulation of property is another essential component of the project, which will benefit all those who face such problems. This is also the case of G.S, father of 8 children, for whom the project will solve two pressing problems at the same time:
“I am very happy if I receive this help, to have water in the yard. It is difficult to raise 8 children, to keep them healthy and cleanly dressed at school, if there is no running water. Every day I take out of the well many buckets of water, necessary for the wife to eat and wash clothes, but also to bathe the children. We don’t have the money to pay for the water connection, nor do we know how to get legal with the property deeds of the house. Through the project, I hope that we will solve these two important problems. “
Funded by the Romanian Social Development Fund, through the “Local Development” Programme, the project “Be part of the community! Integrated services addressed to the local Roma community from Curcani and Românești” is developed by the Association Center for Education and Human Rights, in partnership with the City Hall of Curcani, Călărași County, and benefits from a grant of 772,740 euros, offered by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, through the EEA Grants 2014-2021.