Smell from wastewater sludge to disappear 'in 2-3 weeks'

“The greatest open-air toilet will close on August 1 when the last portion of sludge at the Chisinau wastewater treatment station is to be buried”, stated Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca at the City Hall's ordinary meeting on Monday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Constantin Becciev, the director of the water utility Apa-Canal, told the meeting the final load of the sludge that had accumulated over 40 years on the drying platforms would soon be buried, putting an end to the waves of unpleasant smell coming from the station over the city ever so frequently. Since 19 September 2009, when the authorities introduced a novel technology of drying the sludge in sacks called geotubes, and until this morning, there have been buried 250,000 cubic meters of sludge. The remainder on the drying platforms is estimated at 5,000 cubic meters. “In two or three weeks, the unpleasant smell will disappear completely”, promised Constantin Becciev. After the sludge is buried, the next phase will will be the treatment of the 32-hectare drying platforms with lime water and chlorine.