The disconnection of S.A Apă-Canal Chișinău from the power supply would lead to a disaster in the municipality, said mayor general of the capital city Ion Ceban. According to him, such a move will mean a halt in the work of Termoelectrica and the supply of heat energy and water all over the city will be this way stopped. The mayor noted the government should cover at least a part of the debts of Apă-Canal as the largest part of the taxes collected in Chisinau is transferred to the state budget, IPN reports.
Currently, Apă-Canal Chișinău owes almost 70 million lei to Premier Energy. The power supplier demands that the debts should be cleared and threatens with the disconnection of Apă-Canal Chisnau from the electricity supply. The mayor general of Chisinau said such a scenario can lead to the full paralysis of the city.
“We will not only be unable to use water and sewerage. If there is no water in the system in the winter, the networks can be damaged and the consequences will be even more serious as the rehabilitation of these networks will cost us much more. If Termoelectrica is not supplied with water, as it daily uses 5,000 cubic meters of water that is pumped by Apă-Canal, we will not have heat in apartments in the winter. If water and sewerage are not available at strategic enterprises, such as Franzeluța, dairy companies, companies that make essential products, these will stop work. If someone aims to implement this scenario in times of peace, we should not wait for something good. The Ukrainians, being shelled, didn’t allow such things to happen,” Ion Ceban stated in the program “Résumé with Ileana Pîrgaru” on RliveTV channel.
The mayor noted that the 70 million lei should be paid from the state budget as the debts were collected due to the considerable rise in gas rates, while most of the money collected in Chisinau is directed to the state budget, as the law provides.
“We all, the business entities operating in the municipality of Chisinau, annually transfer to the Government 23 billion lei. We get back 2.5 billion lei, which is slightly over 12%. There is no other capital city in the world that would transfer such an amount to the budget. The citizens should not pay for this gap as they already pay when they give money for the national budget. There is no legal reason to take this money from the municipal budget. Legally, this is not possible. Even if it was possible from legal viewpoint, I don’t think it is right to take this money from salaries, from benefits and the other components covered by the municipality,” stated Ion Ceban.
Earlier, Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu said that using the situation at Apă-Canal, mayor Ion Ceban blackmails 1 million citizens of the municipality of Chisinau. The PAS leader noted that the debts accumulated by Apă-Canal are the result of defective management and should be paid from the municipal budget.
