A plot that is 8 hectares in area was recently allotted by the Chisinau Municipal Council to the municipal Funeral Services Complex for building a crematorium on it, not far from Saint Lazarus Cemetery. The company’s director Ludmila Botan has told IPN that an increasing number of residents of Chisinau want to be able to cremate the dead here too. Judging by the experience of other states, such a project would cost about €1 million, but no study has been yet carried out in Chisinau to determine the costs.
According to Ludmila Botan, up to 30 persons inquire about cremation possibilities daily. These are both agnostics and representatives of different religious denominations, including Orthodox Christians (even if incineration is a non-Christian practice, e.n.). “Many of those who see how tense the situation related to burying is decide to go to Romania or Ukraine to incinerate the dead person and then to bury only the ash,” she stated, noting the financial factor can be sometimes the decisive one as the incineration services are cheaper than the burying ones.
Ludmila Botan also said that the costs for building a crematory in Chisinau haven’t been yet gauged. Two years ago, a crematorium in Romania’s a Cluj-Napoca was opened at a cost of €1 million.
It is hard to reach a crematorium in the neighboring states. A death certificate in Romanian with translation into Ukrainian is needed if one goes to Ukraine. A number of documents are requested at customs posts, some of which authenticated by a notary. The coffin is welded in zinc. “There are many procedures that should be respected. Transportation costs are incurred additionally. Regardless of their religious convictions, some people choose to do this. It would be easier if we had a crematorium in Moldova,” stated Ludmila Botan.
Forty funeral urns have been buried so far this year. The Funeral Services Complex works on the project to build the future crematorium and will present this to the CMC for approval.
