Chisinau Municipality allotted 8 hectares in 2017 for the construction of a crematory near the Saint Lazar Cemetery, but the project seems to have been shut down.

Ludmila Botan, manager of municipal Funeral Services Agency, told IPN that the bill on cemeteries and funeral services, registered in the Parliament in June 2018, had a provision regarding the construction of a crematory in Chisinau. However, during the debates, this provision was scrapped.

She says that a group of MPs that created the bill insisted on the construction of the crematory. It remains to be seen whether the crematory provision will be included in the report of specialized commission when the Parliament debates the bill.

Ludmila Botan added that many families would prefer to cremate their dead given the overextension of the Saint Lazar Cemetery. Some choose to do it in Romania or Ukraine, but it is costlier and requires more paperwork. Last year, 35 urns with ashes of cremated persons were brought to Chisinau.