The administration of Chisinau must focus on three key issues: waste management, reduction of the impact of public transport and protection of green areas. The Urban Ecologist Movement considers these are the main problems that need to be dealt with immediately.
In a news conference at IPN, the Movement’s head Vladimir Garaba said the illegal waste dump set up in the suburbs of Chisinau must be removed. “The resumption of transportation of waste to the dump in Tantareni is the top ecological problem. Thousands of tonnes of solid waste are being deposited on the outskirts of Chisinau daily. The City Hall should immediately take measures,” he stated.
The Urban Ecologist Movement carried out an extensive study of the impact of the waste dump in Tantareni to show that it is possible to resume the transportation of waste to this landfill.
The second pressing problem, according to the Movement, is the impact of transport on the urban environment. “Air pollution is an extraordinary problem. The number of vehicles is thrice higher than the norm set when Chisinau was designed. The capacity of the streets is three times lower,” said Garaba.
The Urban Ecologist Movement suggests a series of solutions to this problem. “To reduce air pollution, we must remove the vehicles from the center of Chisinau. For the purpose, the number of parking places downtown must be decreased from 10,000 to 3,000. The people practically do not have where to walk,” stated Garaba, noting heavier fines should be imposed for illegal parking and free interception parking lots should be built outside the city, where the people from districts could leave their cars.
The destruction of green areas by illegally erecting buildings in parks and inside residential areas and near schools and nurseries is the third major environmental problem. “We are concerned about the extensive cutting of trees. We analyzed the situation and determined that up to 60% of the trees on Ismail and Vasile Alecsandri streets in Chisinau were cut. We are turning the city into a desert,” said the head of the Urban Ecologist Movement.
