Chisinau builds homes for northern flood victims

Five houses, by one in each of the five northern districts affected by flooding, will be built by the municipality within two months, Chisinau officials informed a City Hall meeting on Monday, Info-Prim Neo reports. “It would be nice if we could build five houses in each of the zones affected by floods, bearing in mind our experience in offering such kind of assistance”, said Deputy Mayor Mihai Furtuna. According to him, the money for the homes would be raised from the commercial entities willing to help the victims. Furtuna added that the beneficiaries would be selected from among the poorest families, in particular those which have three or more children and have been left without shelter. According to the project presented by Chisinau's chief architect Vlad Modarca, the homes will be two-roomed, will have a lobby, a bathroom and a veranda, and will cover 56sqm in area. “This could be a temporary solution to provide people with a shelter for the duration of the cold season. The house is small and can be placed in the backyard, so that a new one can be build later”, said Modarca. The estimated cost of such a house is $15,000. It can be erected within a period as short as 45 days. “With preparations for gathering the needed materials, two months will be enough”, said Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, urging district heads to start collecting materials. By August 7, the drop-off locations have collected roughly 15 tonnes of donations for the victims in northern Moldova. The municipality has donated 980,000 lei from its reserve fund to the districts of Briceni and Soroca, with 250,000 lei more to go to other locations. To deal with the consequences of this July's floods, the municipality allocated an extra 700,000 lei to the Education Department to repair the affected educational establishments in the city, and another 300,000 lei went to the housing division for roof repairs.