SA “Apa-Canal Chisinau” (ACC) said that one more financing contract with the EBRD and EIB was lost owing to the delay in the process of adjusting the water supply and sewerage tariffs. In a press release, the company says the works to rehabilitate the water supply and sewerage networks were postponed because the National Agency for Energy Regulation didn’t honor its legal obligations to adjust the tariffs. Owing to this delay, the company already sustains considerable losses and risks fully losing the investments, IPN reports.

According to the ACC, the public water supply and sewerage system that it manages is old and is over 70% worn-out. Most of the water and sewer pipes and other installations in the quarters of Chisinau municipality are in a very bad state and need to be immediately rehabilitated.

Within the €64.8 million Priority Investment Program that is financed by the EBRD and EIB, 205 km of water pipes, over 3,000 water mains in apartment buildings and about 15 km of sewer pipes were to be rehabilitated by December 2018. The tender contest held to choose the contractors that will carry out the works involved 12 companies from Spain, Romania, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Germany, and Moldova.

The public utility said that it annually allocates money from its budget for executing a number of planned works to repair the water supply and sewerage networks, but these cannot radically improve the situation. Therefore, the financing agreement to the value of €64.8 million signed in 2013 was a commitment that brought hope to this sector.