Water supplier cannot make capital investments by applying current water tariff

After the water tariff was raised to 5 lei per cubic metre last autumn, the financial situation of Apa-Canal Chisinau SA has improved. But the tariff is still low and will not permit to make investments in the field in 2008 and the next years, the company’s director Constantin Becciev said on February 18, Info-Prim Neo reports. The cited source said that the water supplier’s activity plan includes only maintenance and capital repair works on the water pipelines. In such circumstances, says Becciev, a number of acute problems, including the supply with drinking water of Bubuieci village, cannot be solved. He said that the settlement risks remaining without water because the aqueduct that connects the village and Chisinau city is damaged. Ruptures of the steel water pipeline that is 600mm in diameter are reported every two-three days as the pipe is very old and some 1.6 kilometres of it must be replaced. According to Becciev, a solution would be to complete the construction of the water main that connect Centru and Buiucani districts, from Coca to Belinschi streets, by including the given works in the 2008 reconstruction plan of the municipal Capital Constructions Division. As a result, it would be possible to repair the aqueduct that goes to Bubuieci. However, the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca asked the administration of Apa-Canal SA to optimise the activity and to propose new reorganisations inside the company so that the available funds are used to improve the services provided. But Constantin Becciev sais that it is hard to achieve these objectives and to make investments at present because the company sustains considerable losses related to the activity of the three thermal plants located near the Airport, in Costiujeni and Codru because the heating charge applied is 233 lei/Gcal. He added that when the City Council approved the charge of 540 lei/Gcal and decided to cover the difference in the heating charges for the population from the local budget, it did not take into account the tariffs for the three thermal plants administered by Apa-Canal SA. Constantin Becciev said that the company is expecting the approval of a new tariff for the heat supplied by Termocom SA and will then propose to raise the tariff for the three plants too.