The German Federal Foreign Office (AA) funds, and GIZ implements, the WASSER project (“Support in mitigating war-related impacts for water supply and sanitation in the border region of Moldova and Ukraine”), supporting local authorities and water operators in the Moldova-Ukraine border region between 2025 and 2027. To strengthen staff qualifications for managing water supply and wastewater services in crisis situations, GIZ commissioned a package of targeted trainings and a study visit for local public authorities (LPAs), water supply and sanitation (WSS) operators, and related institutions in the Ocnița, Dondușeni and Soroca districts, as well as partner communities in Ukraine.

VTG SYNERGY won the contract to deliver this capacity-building package. The team designs and delivers three targeted training modules: a two-day training on crisis management in WSS systems, and one-day trainings on the collection and analysis of drinking water samples and on monitoring effluent parameters from wastewater treatment plants. The trainings combine national requirements with EU good practice and reach mayoralties, district councils, WSS operators and laboratory staff; they include certification and pre-/post-training assessment of participants' knowledge. VTG SYNERGY also organises and facilitates a two-day study visit to the regional WSS operator ApaVital in Iași, Romania, bringing together participants from Moldova and partner communities in Ukraine (Sokyriany, Mohyliv-Podilskyi and Yampil) for a practical exchange on operational resilience, including a roundtable on improving the performance of regional WSS systems.