Orhei residents supplied with high-quality water through World Bank project

The activities carried out with the help of the World Bank (WB) and the international financial organisations are beneficial to Moldova because they ensure the well-being of the population, mayor of Orhei town Ion Stratulat told the reporters who had been on a trip to Orhei organised by the World Bank Office in Moldova on December 6. The town used the 2 million USD allocated by the WB for implementing the water supply and sewerage system rehabilitation project. According to Ion Stratulat, in 2004, when the project started to be implemented, the residents of Orhei had water only several hours a day. Now the town has water without interruption. The water is supplied through the about 16% of the renewed pipes. Approximately 6 kilometres of water pipes were built for several private quarters of the town. The population covered 40-60% of the expenses of building them. Currently, the authorities in Orhei are concerned about the wastewater treatment station of the town. They announced that they are preparing a new project to reconstruct this station. Ion Stratulat voiced hope that the World Bank would finance this project too. Mihai Chiperi, head of the Apa-Canal Division in Orhei, said that about 28.4 kilometres of aqueduct and approximately 2.1 kilometres of sewer pipes have been repaired until present. From the 2 million USD provided by the WB, they purchased several excavators, sewer machines, a mobile workshop, an electric generator, welding machines, asphalt cutter, equipment for detecting leaks, tens of pumps for the pumping stations and for the sewerage system. The buildings of the pumping stations were renovated. The World Bank-financed project implemented, 90% of the Orhei residents began to receive water in a centralized way, the metering level rose from 2% to 90%, the enterprise recuperated the money owed by the consumers and managed to save about 33% of the consumed electric power. The ruptures and leaks in water pipelines as well as the water losses decreased, the volume of invoiced water increased etc. The Apa-Canal Division in Orhei supplies several neighbour villages with water and hopes to become a regional supplier in the near future. In addition, the Division invested about 680,000 lei from its own budget. In 2008, it plans to repair another 13.5 kilometres of pipe at its own expense with the materials purchased from the money offered by the World Bank. The town is now supplied only from the spring “Jeloboc”. In such a way, most of the consumers are provided with water of a high quality that does not need to be treated, only cleaned. The town authorities say that the spring has a very large flow capacity, of 72.2 litres per second. The amount of water that flows into the river Raut could be used to supply with water the same number of consumers as at the moment. The World Bank allocated 12 million USD for a pilot water supply and sewerage project in Moldova that covers five settlements: Orhei, Cahul, Stefan-Voda, Soroca, Balti, as well as Corjova village in Criuleni district, as part of the rural component of the project. The goal of the project was to enhance welfare in some of the poorest villages, medium-sized towns and cities by improving the quality, efficiency and reliability of the water supply and sewerage services. The loan was disbursed under the standard terms of the WB International Development Agency. It is repayable in 40 years, inclosing a 10-year grace period. WB experts say that the best results were achieved by the the Apa-Canal Divisions in Orhei, Cahul and Stefan Voda. In Cahul, the water is supplied 19 hours a day, as against 8-10 hours in the past. Some 22 kilometers of aqueduct and 13.9 kilometres of sewer pipes have been repaired there. The losses were reduced by 20%. About 95% of the population in the town is now supplied with water. The works in Soroca go on, but the residents are confident that the quality of the water will soon improve and it will not be full of chemical substances anymore; that they will have only one water supply source. When the project is implemented, 98% of the population will benefit from a high-quality service, the payment level will be about 95%, the water losses will fell by 30%, and the specialized enterprise will have a better financial performance. Ten artesian wells and about 24 kilometres of water pipelines were repaired in Stefan-Voda. Some 99% of the population is supplied with high-quality water 19 hours a day, in contrast to 3 hours earlier. This is a better result than projected.