Now that the winter holidays are over, SA “Apa-Canal Chisinau” resumed the transportation of mud that was collected in geotubes at the Chisinau Wastewater Treatment Station during a year. The works started on December 18, 2017, but were stopped for the period of the holidays. So far the company’s employees took away 15,000 cubic meters of mud, IPN reports, with reference to a press release of the water supplier.

Over 75,000 cubic meters of mud from about 140 geotubes are to be disposed of by March. The mud is kept in special storage places built on the territory of the Wastewater Treatment Station. After the mud is taken away, the platforms and access ways will be cleaned and disinfected.

According to the supplier, these works are annually performed in the cold season to avoid the spread of the unpleasant smell emitted by the mud transporting mechanisms. But the unpleasant smell is nevertheless regularly felt owing to the old equipment. The station has worked for 50 years. The administration of “Apa-Canal Chisinau” invested in the renovation and maintenance of the existing equipment, ensuring thus its functioning.

For the cleaning system to work efficiently, a new station should be built. This will be possible following the raising of a loan of about €62.8 million from the EBRD and EIB, approximately €14 million of which is in the form of a grant. The largest part of the investments will go to rehabilitate the Wastewater Treatment Station and about 7 km of sewer pipes.

The company that will rehabilitate the station was chosen at a contest. The period of validity of the contract signed with this is of 900 days. The works are now being planned in detail.

According to “Apa-Canal Chisinau”, the technologies used since 2009 until now to process the mud proved their efficiency. Though they are a temporary solution for storing mud, the geotubes enabled to reduce the area of mud drying platforms from 37 ha to 3.6 ha, the pestilential smell from the platforms being thus significantly reduced.