Prundeni de Vâlcea or Romania can feel like Sweden

26.11.2009

Prundeni commune, in Vâlcea County, only comprises of 4,500 people, but is immensely active in accessing millions of Euros worth of European funds in order to develop the community. Its inhabitants are already benefitting from a sewage and water supply system, a social canteen and centres for the disadvantaged, training courses for those interested in their professional evolution. People think that should their standard of life reach a new level, due to the new modern improvements and to the funds the City Hall has accessed, they will end up living as if they were in Sweden, which is one of the most developed countries in Europe.

Prundeni has more than modern, clean schools, equipped with the newest kind of facilities (such as Jacuzzi showers for the school children). It also has centres for the elderly, for orphan and for victims. The centre for domestic violence information, counselling and assistance, built with a non-returnable fund worth 51,000 lei, wants to socially integrate the women, children and teenagers who have been victims of domestic violence.

Apart from the victims centre, Prundeni also has a day centre for institutionalized children, financed by the former Ministry of European Integration with 58,000 lei. The elderly are also beneficiaries of two projects, in the Zavideni village of the commune: a social canteen (financed by the Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Protection) and a day centre for the elderly (financed by the Ministry of European Integration).

The 200 elderly people there receive two free meals a day, at the canteen or straight at home, from case to case. Also, 50 people there have their clothing ensured through this project.

The Electronic Networks of the Local Communities (RECL) have always been involved in identifying these projects and implementing them. “The moment our institution benefitted from a functional broadband internet connection, I started exploring most of the websites offering information on project launches, all of which I then presented to the mayor, as the RECL manager. Following talks with him, I started researching into the people’s desires in what concerned the necessity of these projects. In the end, we all went through with them”, says Cătălin Miu, the RECL manager in Prundeni.

Actually, the RECL involvement was seen in almost all projects developed in Prundeni. “The projects we’ve actively participated in include the selective waste management, building the village’s sports centre, installing a proper sewage system, improving roads of local interest, setting up an after school centre for school children, as well as one for the preservation of our cultural heritage. Also, we’ve contributed to the setting up of the Public Community Service of Civil Registry, to professional training and to increasing school access for children in rural environments”, says Miu.

Beach, after-school and gaining energy independence

The Prundeni Mayor, Ion Horăscu, is not content with what he’s done so far, he’s aiming for more. Thus, the local authorities are planning financing projects for wind turbines, for leisure areas, for the new city hall, post office and police headquarters, as well as for creating an industrial park where the local workforce could find a job.

All the funds accessed so far and the ambitious projects which the city hall has planned say a lot about the dynamics of this small community. In the last years, the City Hall has accessed 1 million Euros worth of SAPARD funds for the rehabilitation of local interest roads (7,3 km). “Before the rehabilitation, travelling there was very difficult, and in rainy or winter season the roads were blocked and hard to get to. After the works were finished, the street got a modern profile, which gives extra traffic comfort”, says Mayor Ion Horăscu.

Other high-valued projects have already been submitted for approvals and are on the waiting list of development. First of all, there’s the expansion of the sewage system on a 24 km length, as well as creating a water cleaning station; there’s the expansion of the water supply system, on a 4 km length; improving the network of local interest roads by asphalting one km of streets; setting up an after-school centre (photo 1); preserving the local cultural heritage, by supplying the cultural centre with traditional costumes, musical instruments and a proper sound system, as well as by setting up an ethnography and folk museum. A European fund worth 250,000 Euros will also pay for the training of City Hall employees.

Another European program, financed by PHARE with over 570,000 Euros, targets selective waste management. One thousand garden grinders have been bought – in order to clear gardens from any vegetal waste - , as well as a 9 t garbage truck (photo 2) and 2000 dumpsters. Also, 18 areas have been especially cleared for the collection of selected waste.

The „Prima Prundeni” sports centre will also be rehabilitated through a government program worth over 770,000 lei: 500-seats stands will be set up, and a parking lot, showers, locker rooms and a running track will be built in the centre. Other programs under development target rural children’s access to education (1,7 million Euros); acquiring small buses for children’s transport (photo 3) and providing children with a hot meal after the school program; organizing professional training courses for the Prundeni inhabitants (1,2 million lei); setting up a Civil Registry office within the City Hall, in order to give out ID cards and passports (65,000 Euros); building a new civic area in the centre of the commune and expanding the natural gas network.

Prundeni wants another 100 million Euros

The local administration has done its math and reached the conclusion that it5 would need another 100 million Euros for all the projects it needs. For example, setting up the tourist and leisure centre “Călina Beach”, in the village bearing the same name, would cost 25 million Euros; the wind turbines that would use the renewable energy sources of the village, while granting energy independence, would cost another 25 million Euros, money with which the new public lighting system will also be bought. The same sum is needed for the industrial park in which the locals would work, as well as for the environment projects – stabilizing the courses of Grosarea and Bărbuceni streams, establishing a protected region of the Olt river and clearing 100 ha of degraded farming land.

On-line resources:

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