The public transport in Chisinau considerably pollutes the environment. The trolleybuses contribute to the electromagnetic pollution, while the buses and minibuses, which are rather old, definitely pollute the environment, representatives of the Urban Ecologist Movement said in a news conference at IPN.
“Most of the buses in the municipality of Chisinau are 20-30 years old and they surely pollute the environment. It’s good that there are only 130 buses in the municipality. If there had been 500 buses in number, as the trolleybuses, we wouldn’t have been able to breathe,” said the Movement’s head Vladimir Garaba.
According to him, in the case of trolleybuses, the pollution is not so evident. They contribute only to electromagnetic pollution, which should be determined. Instead, the minibuses seriously pollute the environment. “We should not forget that there are over 1,000 minibuses running on routes in Chisinau. The figure may look not so high in the structure of public transport, but they run permanently. A vehicle is parked and can stay there for a day, but the minibuses travel continuously,” stated Vladimir Garaba.
He also said that a tender contest to purchase 30 old buses, of at most 10 years, for the municipality was announced. “This is anti-ecological as the engines of the buses of German or Italian make cannot be used for so long. I think this contest should be stopped for a period, until the Chisinau Municipal Council realizes the essence of the project. This project will be initiated without an ecological appraisal. The ecological impact must be first determined. I’m asked how much the pollution level will grow, but I do not know. It depends on the parameters of the engines, the type of fuel, etc. If these buses use diesel fuel, they shouldn’t be purchased as this fuel is increasingly polluting,” said Garaba.
