Chisinau consumers to pay more for water

The consumers in the municipality of Chisinau will pay more for water from November. In Monday’s ordinary meeting of Chisinau City Hall officials, the director general of SA “Apa-Canal Chisinau” Constantin Becciev said by a cubit meter of hot and cold water will be added to the bills of every apartment in order to reduce the difference between the figures on the private water meters and the block water meters. The bills for November will be by about 50 lei higher, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Constantin Becciev, the losses sustained by the company owing to the difference in figures amount to hundreds of millions of lei a year. The director explained that the water meters of 95% of the end-users are old and do not accurately record the amount of used water. “As a result, the joint stock companies Apa-Canal Chisinau and Termocom accumulate large debts,” said Constantin Becciev, adding that the two companies’ debts will soon reach 1 billion lei. Constantin Becciev stated that a solution is to change the A- and B-type private water meters for C- and D-type meters, which are more expensive and cost 350 lei. Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca said that there are three solutions in the created situation – the end-users change the meters at their own expense, the water meters are replaced by Apa-Canal Chisinau, but the charges will be increased, or every month the consumers pay the difference in the used volume of water – by one more cubic meter of hot and cold water. Currently, the residents of Chisinau municipality pay 9 lei for a cubic meter of cold water and about 40 lei for a cubic meter of hot water.