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November 2009

The Amur Initiative seminar in Khabarovsk demonstrated significant results of the program

Amur Initiative seminar participants at the site visit in Sikachi-Alan nanai village – one of the projects implementation sites

On November 12-13, 2009 the final seminar in the framework of the targeted program “Improving drinking water quality in the settlements along Amur river in Khabarovskiy Krai” (Amur Initiative) took place in Khabarovsk. It was organized by the Fund for Sustainable Development under financial support of USAID in partnership with the RFE Partner Regional Center “Zelyonyi Dom” and Khabarovskiy Krai Government. It gathered representatives of 32 organizations including USAID, regional and local authorities, municipal enterprises, academia, local businesses, regional mass media and environmental NGOs. The meeting was attended by the US Consul General Tom Armbruster.

Amur Initiative was implemented in 2007-2009 as a response to catastrophic pollution of Amur river.  Thanks to its twelve projects over 50 000 rural citizens who had to drink heavily polluted water from Amur river got access to clean and safe drinking water sources. In the project sites the rate of alimentary diseases was reduced by 20%. In four settlements for the first time in their history water quality improved and now is in compliance with the State Sanitary Standards (SanPiN). Over one million inhabitants of Khabarovskiy Krai got access to information provided by the water quality monitoring system organized under the support of Amur Initiative. Follow-up activities based on the projects raised over $370 000 from local businesses. All seminar participants agreed that Amur Initiative is one of the best examples of fruitful cooperation between USAID and Khabarovskiy Krai in addressing most urgent regional challenges. The seminar participants expressed their gratitude to USAID for the timely support and proposed to discuss the next phase of the Program in cooperation and with co-funding from Khabarovskiy Krai Government The seminar was followed by the site-visit to Sikachi-Alan nanai national village - one of the projects implementation sites.