The housing and communal services system of the Vitebsk region managed to reduce costs by Br38.1 million in 2016

Vitebsk region's housing and communal services managed to reduce costs by Br38.1 million in 2016 due to structural optimization, savings on fuel and energy resources, and other measures. This was announced today at a session of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies by Yuri Dyadelo, Head of the Housing and Communal Services Department of the Regional Executive Committee.

"The effectiveness of the implementation of the state program 'Comfortable Housing and a Favorable Environment' last year was generally high. Over the past five years, the volume of commissioned total residential area after major repairs has increased more than 2.5 times. According to the results of 2016, the Vitebsk region holds a leading position in the repair of entrances. An indicator of the affordability of housing and communal services is the timeliness and completeness of their payment by consumers. For 2016, our region was assigned a task to reduce costs in housing and communal services by Br37.74 million. Thanks to a whole set of measures, the task was completed by 100.6%, with the total savings amounting to Br38.1 million," noted Yuri Dyadelo.

In particular, to save fuel and energy resources, measures of the energy saving program were implemented: the share of local types of fuel in the total balance increased (it is now 67.9% - the best indicator in the country); three heat sources were reconstructed, nine boiler houses were modernized with the installation of pellet-fired boilers, and this work continues; optimization of the heat supply network was carried out. The reduction of costs in the region's housing and communal services was also achieved through optimizing the number of employees in the sector (including by improving the management structure of housing and communal services), reducing natural gas prices, and other measures (optimizing transport routes, writing off unused assets). For 2017, the region has been assigned a task to reduce costs for providing housing and communal services to the population by Br3.89 million. At the same time, at the beginning of the year, most districts and cities of the region have arrears to servicing organizations for subsidizing housing and communal services, so local authorities will have to work very seriously to align budget allocations with actual expenses.

Reporting on the results of 2016, Yuri Dyadelo

noted that the provision of quality drinking water, hot water supply, and heating to the population meets the standards. In certain areas, the proper level of road paving has not been achieved – in total, utility companies manage over 5.5 thousand km, which is 56% of the total number of existing streets, and insufficient funding is allocated for their maintenance.

The head of the department also stated that several districts have problems with the removal of solid municipal waste from the territories of horticultural associations and from the population.

"Priority areas in the housing and communal services of the region in 2017 will be: compliance with social standards for serving the population, investing funds in the modernization of fixed assets under the program "Comfortable Housing and a Conducive Environment," and further reducing the costs of providing housing and communal services. A large volume of work is ahead in preparation for and holding the regional festival "Dazhynki-2017" in Dubrovno, the Day of Belarusian Written Language in Polotsk, as well as the implementation of the "village of the future" project in the urban settlement of Kopys in the Orsha district," added Yuri Dyadelo.

Ekaterina Knyazeva - BELTA.