The Motorsanitation division has intensified the domestic waste disposal activities in Ciocana district, where special vehicles transport the refuse three times a week, as opposed to two times a week earlier. At City Hall’s meeting on January 14, the division’s head Tudor Maniv said that similar transportation timetables will be implemented in the other districts of the capital city by March 1. According to him, the specialised services in Centru, Buiucani and Rascani districts will start collecting rubbish three times a week within a month, while in Botanica district at the beginning of spring. Ciocana is the first district with a new timetable because the largest volume of waste is accumulated here. Maniv also said that that recently the Division held a public tender contest for purchasing 10 waste collection vehicles ZIL. Another seven vehicles will be bought at a new tender contest that will be held this month. If the seven units are acquired, Maniv says, the division will have the necessary number of vehicles to effectively transport the waste out of the municipality. At this month’s tender contest, the Motorsanitation division also intends to purchase about 1,500 rubbish bins made in Germany and will order containers from Chisinau manufacturers. Head of Ciocana district Galina Bostan said that the new timetable is welcome, but in many Ciocana quarters the waste must be transported each day and not only three days a week. Another problem is that of the 4,000 economic entities operating in the district, only 700 entered into contracts with the Motorsanitation division, while the rest use the rubbish bins of the apartment buildings free of charge. According to Maniv, only 30% of the 17,000 economic entities in Chisinau have signed contracts for the collection of waste. The police and employees of preventive medicine departments visited the companies that do not have such contracts after the holidays and fined them, Tudor Maniv said. The Motorsanitation division stepped up the waste disposal activities after the local authorities doubled the refuse transportation norms in the municipality. From December, the residents of Chisinau and of the suburbs pay more for domestic waste disposal. An apartment inhabitant now pays a waste disposal charge of 5.6 lei a month, in contrast to 2.8 lei earlier. A private house resident pays 11.2 lei a month, as opposed to 5.8 lei earlier. The authorities considered that the previous norms of one cubic metre of household waste a year for a resident of a block of flats and of two cubic metres for a private home resident approved in 1986 had to be increased as the situation changed with the appearance of new types of packages like plastic bottles and tetra-pack. In such a way, the Motorsanitation division transports daily by over 1,000 cubic metres of waste more than projected.