Subterranean waters of Moldova do not comply with quality standards of drinkable water

The majority of subterranean waters of Moldova do not correspond to quality standards of drinkable water, because of the excessive content of fluor, iron, sulfured hydrogen, chlorides, sulfates and a high mineralization level. According to the second Performance Study in the field of environment protection made by the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the pollution of underground waters is a wide spread phenomenon in RM, and their bad management lead to further worsening of their quality. In rural areas, where the majority of the population takes water from wells, only 17% of the families use centralized water supply system; this way the bad quality water has a direct impact direct upon the health of the population, increasing the death rate and generating additional costs in the state budget and the economy in general. The survey shows as well that domestic and industrial residual waters are a major source of pollution for the surface waters, as the majority of the recycling plants are out of order. From 580 such stations build before 1990, only 100 of them work properly. At the same time, these stations are run at about 32% of their capacity, as the majority of the equipment is worn-out.