Moldova’s Water Agency transmitted the irrigation systems of Criuleni and Lopatna to water users associations for use for a 30-year period. The systems are to be rehabilitated within a program financed by the U.S. Government, IPN reports.

Acting Minister of the Environment Gheorghe Salaru said that this way the management of the ponds will be improved, this being one of the main objectives of the Compact Program. “We hope to restore at least 11 irrigation stations, to protect minimum 15,000 hectares and to ensure Moldova’s food security,” said Gheorghe Salaru.

The rehabilitation program is financed by the U.S. Government through the Moldova Millennium Challenge Fund. According to the Fund’s executive director Valentina Badrajan, the works to rehabilitate the irrigation systems in Criuleni and Lopatna will start in a month. “We are at the last stage of negotiations on the contracts, held with a company that will be responsible for the rehabilitation of the systems and with another company that will supervise the process,” she stated. The irrigation systems will be put into operation in the summer of 2015.

The irrigation systems in Lopatna and Criuleni are now partially functional. There are about 530 farmland owners from four settlements in the area served by the centralized irrigation system of Lopatna. 460 of them are members of the Lopatna Association of Users of Water for Irrigation. The centralized irrigation system of Criuleni serves 500 farmers, 300 of whom are members of the local irrigation association.

The transfer of the irrigation systems under the users’ management is an innovative measure for the irrigation sector of Moldova. Similar practices exist in Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and Portugal.