At the station that cleans Prut water before it reaches the taps of Ungheni, the work these days is on the very heart of the installation. Apă-Canal Ungheni has announced that it has already replaced more than 350 metres of large-diameter exterior pipe — between 200 and 600 millimetres — and around 25 valves, the parts that control the flow of water through the network. The first of four new high-capacity pumps, of 250 cubic metres, has also been installed, with the other three to follow shortly; separately, a 1,000-cubic-metre flushing pump has been positioned.
The works are part of the rehabilitation of the station’s internal technological networks — that is, the modernization of the equipment through which raw water taken from the river is filtered and sent on into the city.
What the project actually is
The treatment station is not a stand-alone site but a piece of a larger regional work: the “Rehabilitation and extension of the Zagarancea–Cornești trunk water main”. Besides the station, the project provides for around 15 kilometres of trunk water main, a doubling of the station’s capacity and two new pumping stations.
The money comes from the state. According to the tender document of the Centru Regional Development Agency (ADR Centru), the cost was estimated at almost 31 million lei excluding VAT, with funding covered from the National Fund for Regional and Local Development and a contribution from the Ungheni District Council; ADR Centru later put the value of the whole project at 32.44 million lei. The works are carried out by the company Laiola. The 32-million sum therefore covers the entire ensemble — water main, station and pumping stations — not just the intervention at the station; how much goes to the station rehabilitation on its own, and how much the District Council is putting in, have not been made public.
Why it matters: a station from a time when water came differently
The station treats water drawn from the river Prut through an intake built in 1972 — so the core installations are more than half a century old. The project aims to double their capacity and modernize them, so the town has a more reliable supply and better-treated water. ADR Centru estimates that, once completed, the whole Zagarancea–Cornești project will benefit more than 40,800 residents of Ungheni and neighbouring localities.
This is not the first major investment in Ungheni’s water. In 2022 the town took delivery of a water and sewerage network built with European funds, and the station had earlier been fitted with a monitoring system and a new drinking-water reservoir. The current rehabilitation continues, on the treatment side, the same effort to bring an old service up to today’s standards.
What it means for consumers
The uncomfortable part of the works, as usual, is borne by the taps. The operator notes that the temporary shut-offs are planned and necessary so the work can be done safely, and that, although they cause discomfort, they are done in consumers’ interest. Apă-Canal Ungheni announces the interruptions one by one, on its website and page, with the street and the period affected — that is where to look for the concrete schedule of each shut-off, because a single, advance schedule of all the interruptions in this stage has not been published.
The progress of the works (the pipes, valves and pumps) and the warning about shut-offs come from Apă-Canal Ungheni’s statement. The station’s place within the “Zagarancea–Cornești” project, the cost, the funder and the contractor come from the documents of the Centru Regional Development Agency; the figure of 32.44 million lei refers to the whole project, not just the station, and the breakdown by component and the amount of the District Council’s contribution are not public. The number of beneficiaries is an ADR Centru estimate. The water source and the year of the intake come from the operator’s technical description.