Only 35% of the population of Hâncești town is connected to the centralized sewerage system. The other inhabitants have to build individual sewerage systems or to regularly use specialized disposal services. Some people, for whom the costs are too high, simply choose to dig holes where sewage pours or to illegally pump the sewage into the public network at night.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, mayor of Hâncești Alexandru Botnari said in 2016, five sectors of the town were connected to the network as part of a project implemented at a cost of 10 million lei, which was provided from the Ecological Fund. This is 15% of the population. “We want to get access to a new project so as to get funds and also connect the other citizens to the centralized system,” said the mayor.
To extend the sewerage system for this to cover the whole municipality, the capacity of the sewage treatment plant should be doubled. “The sewage treatment plant was rehabilitated in 2004 and we now have modern mixers and pumps, but need to extend the capacity twice so as to be able to cope,” stated Alexandru Botnari.
A project financed by the Czech Republic is ongoing. Within this, a new sewer pipe will be built from the outskirts of the municipality of Hânceşti up to the sewage treatment works. A station is to also be erected for increasing the pumping capacities.
Alexandru Botnari noted the investments needed in the sewerage system are too large and it is hard to get such funds even though EU-funded projects. “About 50 million lei is needed for all the citizens to be connected to the network. If such funds are accessed, we will ultimately solve these problems during the next few years.”
Until European funds are identified, the mayor said local financing is provided and they cooperate with citizens so that they contribute by 4,000-5,000 lei. “We are looking for solutions to improve the situation,” stated the mayor.
According to the Regional Sector Programme on Water Supply and Sanitation: Development Region Centru, only 42% of the urban population and 3% of the rural population are connected to centralized sewerage systems. The connection rate nationwide is 30%.
