The prospects of developing the Water Users Associations in Moldova and the methods of strengthening their capacity were discussed at a roundtable meeting organized by Moldova’s Water Agency and the National Farmers Federation Agroinform on Thursday, December 10, Info-Prim Neo reports. During the meeting, experts of Agroinform presented a study in which they analyzed the work of 29 of the existent 33 Water Users Associations (four have been registered recently). They were founded in different years by 1,723 members, 22 of whom private individuals. By August this year, their number rose by over 52% to 2,634 members, including 23 private individuals. Four Water Users Associations work in the north of Moldova, 14 in the center, while 11 in the south of the country. The associations can irrigate, according to the August data, 8,240 hectares or 6.3% of the total irrigable area. Doctor of Economy Andrei Zbanca, specialist in agribusiness at Agroinform, considers that the subsidization by the state of the water consumption for pumping and irrigating farmland contributed significantly to the extension of the irrigated areas and to the more efficient utilization of the irrigation capacities of the Water Users Associations. The investment projects and the foreign backers such as IFAD and FAO played an important role in creating and developing the Water Users Associations. Many of the mentioned problems derive from the lack of a legal framework that would properly regulate the activity of the given associations. The associations also say that the irrigation infrastructure is old and costly and that the components of the irrigations systems have not been adequately distributed. Some remained public property, while others were transferred under private administration. According to the Water Users Associations, investments of 26 million lei are needed to make the irrigation works more efficient and extend the irrigable areas. About 170,000 hectares of land are now irrigated in Moldova. Of the US$262 million that Moldova will get from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, US$102 million will be used to rehabilitate 11 centralized irrigation systems that can irrigate 15,000 hectares.