Article published in the “Adevărul” Newspaper, April 10, 2006.
By Magda Crişan As far as the eye can see, there are hills covered with green grass and trees in blossom. Here and there, you can see villages and hamlets long forgotten in time. It’s a half-hour car ride between Zalau to the Sâg commune, about 40 kilometers apart. Drivers sigh deeply when their cars stumble past potholes.
Sâg people do not want mud to reach up to their knees anymore
 “Without county roads here, we are completely isolated,” complains the mayor of Sâg commune, Bonte Florian. There have been many attempts to attract investors in our commune, he says, but “most of them were terrified by the roads. I know how important access is for a businessman.” People from Sâg commune are not the sort of people who would stand by idly with their arms crossed. The 3,500 inhabitants of the commune, good and hard working people, with a cow and swine in each yard, gathered to resolve the roads issue. In 2001, they found a solution: they applied for funds offered by the World Bank under the Rural Development Project. They had to choose between the rehabilitation of the water network and that of commune roads. Sâg people said: ”My mother and my grandfather used to drink water from that well. Nobody has died because of the water so far.” So, they chose to rehabilitate roads, because they were sick and tired of having mud up to their knees. People from Mal village could not carry their dead to the graveyard because they “sank into the mud.” When children from the Slovak neighborhood walked 15 kilometers up to the school in Sâg, they would be “dirty from head to toe when it rained.” A consultative process
People from five villages and two smaller hamlets delegated their wise men to take part in a consultative committee. One of the inhabitants from Sâg tells us: “In 2001, the school master, the priest, the accountant, representatives of the Rroma community and of the 100 Slovaks, led by the mayor, gathered in the CIAC, (the English name of the committee).” They consulted and let World Bank experts, whom they called “teachers,” advise them. From an engineer, they learnt about the technical and financial aspects of building a road. As the mayor said, “We are too poor to select a cheap and low quality option.” Sâg village opted for a road covered by asphalt.  Maps showing commune lanes were drafted and people gathered to identify together their priorities, applying red, yellow or blue dot stickers, depending on the priority. “It was difficult. When you have scarce resources, you need to choose and each of us put a dot next to his or lane,” said the mayor. He added, with a laugh: ”What’s important is that the vote was not secret, like in our parliament.”
Another villager tells us: "I could not believe that a road would actually come to life from these dots.” But people saw the road being built in front of their eyes and paid readily their 200,000 ROL contribution. The mayor remembers someone who came and said: “Look! I have come to pay my contribution to the road, because I have just sold a foal at the Crasna fair.” Petru Bontea, the school master in Sâg, is proud that the money saved by the municipality by accessing external funds (for roads) is now going to the school. Florina Moga, member of the CIAC in Sâg, tells us about their plans: ”We are going to purchase a Logan car, so that our pupils learn how to drive. Many young people of Sâg village go to work in Spain and Italy. We hope to bring them back. People will come back when they know that they no longer have to 'swim' in mud.”
Carastelec and Camăr communes move towards the EU together
 The Carastelec and Camăr communes have a joint history in accessing external funds for infrastructure. They applied separately for funds from the World Bank Rural Development Program and the EU’s SAPARD Program but thought it over together. The two communes, with a majority Hungarian population, as well as Romanian and Rroma communities, form a kind of terminus at the border of Sălaj, Bihor and Satu Mare counties. “Here, we are isolated from the world, so we had to do something.” Faluvegi Ferencs-Istvan, the mayor of Carastelec tells us.  “We have five bakery owners in our commune, but all of them are in our neighborhood villages, because we did not have any roads,” he says, adding that, “The lack of jobs in our commune made young people take their chances in Oradea town or abroad."
Dumăslău village, belonging to Carastelec commune has not had a school for 15 years and the average age of its Romanian inhabitants is 65 years. The Romanian priest of the commune tells: “I have not baptized a child in 20 years.” The priest continues: “Before we accessed about 350,000 dollars from the Rural Development Program, people of Dumăslău used to get stuck with their horse wagons in mud. People came with lamps to get them out of the mud, together with their horses.” Szoboszli Attila, mayor of Camăr, tells us: “Ever since the roads were built, the prices of houses and land have doubled.”
Over 100 localities benefit from the World Bank's program Currently, five regions - meaning over 100 localities - benefit from the World Bank’s Rural Development Program. In addition to the roughly 40 million USD granted by the WB through its Rural Development Program, the Romanian government has contributed about 13 million USD. Besides the infrastructure rehabilitation, the project seeks to increase the administrative capacity of local government. “First of all, it seeks to get the entire community involved in making decisions at the local level,” says Ioana Calinici, Assistance Team Coordinator in Sălaj County. She ads: "For authorities, the project represents also a precedent for them to be able to easily access European funds after accession.” World Bank experts are monitoring work accomplished within the Rural Development Program, which started in 2002 is set to be completed by December 2006. According to Ionel David, World Bank evaluator in this project, nine out of 58 projects have been rejected, the reason being poor quality of works. Tiberiu Marc, president of the Sălaj County Council, confesses: “In the beginning of the project, people raised the issue of which dignitary would get to cut the ribbon when roads are inaugurated. But half of our roads needed rehabilitation. So, when we started working, political affiliation became irrelevant.” He recalls the moment when he was afraid that Sălaj County would not win the project because it had serious competition from Maramures County. Marc tells us: “The team went to the selection interview and even rehearsed in advance, like students before an exam. Now, we are thinking of accession to the EU in 2007, and of accessing structural funds,” he adds. He is aware of the fact that there is still a lot to do. He concludes: “We know that rural areas have to become sources of revenue rather than assisted areas.”
* * * Read World Bank documents connected with the Rural Development Project (2002-2006) |
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