Several hundred hectares of farmland in Petresti, Blindesti and Sculeni villages of Ungheni district will be irrigated after the irrigation system in Blindesti is reconstructed with the U.S. Government’s funds within the Compact Program.
According to the Millennium Challenge Account Moldova, quoted by IPN, the reconstruction works include the laying of about 29 km of new high-density polyethylene and steel pipes. They will substitute the asbestos pipes that do not meet the technical and environmental requirements. There will be reconstructed three pumping stations that will be outfitted with 13 modern pumps and electrical equipment. The new equipment will enable to irrigate over 580 hectares of farmland and to afterward extend the irrigated areas by another 1,100 hectares.
The rehabilitation of the Blindesti irrigation system started this spring and will continue by the end of this month. The total costs were assessed at US$8.3 million. The works are performed by the French company SADE, which was selected at an international tender contest.
The Millennium Challenge Account Moldova has signed contracts for the execution of construction works of about US$80 million for rehabilitating ten irrigation systems: six on the Nistru River (Criuleni, Lopatna, Jora de Jos, Puhaceni, Roscani, and Cosnita), and four on the Prut River (Blindesti, Grozesti, Leova, and Chircani-Zirnesti).
The irrigation system in Blindesti does not work. It was built in the 1970s and was in a deplorable state when the rehabilitation works started.
