Chisinau City Council member Ion Cebanu (Liberals) thinks that the municipal project for energy efficiency and thermal rehabilitation should be sped up to cover more and more buildings.
During a debate on the subject organized by IPN, the Liberal councilman noted that the 22 buildings serviced by the project so far don’t even amount to one percent of the city’s total. “The residential stock alone comprises about 3,000 buildings. So, what has been done so far is no more than a pilot phase perhaps. If we think about what needs to be done in the entire country, a support fund and an acceleration of all factors, including partners, is required”, said Cebanu.
“The government is getting a certain amount of funds to mitigate the situation we are in, with the coming winter in mind and the past one, too – for controlling gas prices and so on. Why wouldn’t some of this money be redirected to a fund to support a project like this?”, the councilman asked rhetorically.
“We’ve seen that savings (following this project) can amount to 40 percent. I insist on the idea that funds granted by partners can be used to carry out energy efficiency projects. This is because the municipality has a budget, well, with a deficit of one billion lei. There is little you can do to find extra funds on your own, you need central support”, he added.
In these circumstances, the councilman believes that if “we could find the openness of external partners, we could speed things up now”. “I repeat: I opt for the acceleration of this project, but I realize that it requires both money and human resources. I see no other way than to rely on our partners. If we lay this expense on the local budgets or the population, we will not be able to move on”, said the councilman.
Asked by the moderator if there is any possibility to get financing from the pre-accession funds, Ion Cebanu stated that this was discussed when Moldova was granted candidate status. “But some conditions and deadlines have also been set. Things to be done in the field of justice by the end of the year to have access next year to the pre-accession funds. As far as I know, at the moment the Republic of Moldova does not have access to the pre-accession funds”, said Ion Cebanu.
