About 20% of the population of Chisinau are persons with reduced mobility. Of these, 1.7% are persons with visual impairments, 2.5% are persons with locomotor disabilities and users of wheelchair, crutches and sticks, 4.6% are children aged between 0 and 5 and 10.9% are persons older than 60 who have chronic health problems. In a news conference at IPN, Ion Cibotărică, of the Center for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, said these figures are significant for the population of the city. Ensuring accessibility is thus important.
According to Ion Cibotărică, the pedestrian audit until now has been performed in three areas of the city. The first was the Park of the Metropolitan Cathedral. This is well laid out compared with other parks of Chisinau, but it also has problems, such as obstacles to the pedestrian way and lack of accessible public sanitary facilities. Inspections were also carried out on Mircea cel Bătrân Blvd in Ciocana district, especially on the central pathway that was recently renovated, but still has faults. There is no tactile paving and sonorous traffic lights there, while the crosswalks are inaccessible. The public transport stations are situated on platforms that often do not have ramps or the existing ramps are inaccessible.
Similar problems were identified at the intersection of the streets Dacia-Traian-Decebal in Botanica district. This is an area with a large number of pedestrians, units of transport, recreation areas and shopping centers. The intersection hadn’t been repaired for many years and is in a deplorable condition. The underground passage is dangerous, with improvised ramps that are not accessible. A lot of cars are parked in places intended for persons with disabilities. There are many obstacles on sidewalks that pose a threat to any person.
Ion Cibotărică noted the Chisinau municipality should work out a plan of action for making the city accessible and this plan should mandatorily be based on several priorities. “In this connection, we would like the municipal authorities to continue the effort to work out and approve the plan of action for making Chisinau accessed during the next four years. We are ready to offer the necessary support and to identify together the priorities and formulate recommendations for each of these locations,” he stated.
The news conference forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Injustice Revealed through Multimedia”. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
