In the hottest week of the summer, water in Sculeni no longer runs whenever you open the tap. The commune’s City Hall and the municipal utility “Servicom Sculeni” introduced, from Tuesday, 30 June, a temporary water-distribution schedule by sectors — in effect, rationing — after pressure in the network dropped so far that water no longer reached all the village’s households.
The authority’s explanation is blunt: “Due to extremely high consumption in this period (especially for watering gardens) and irresponsible use of the network, water pressure has dropped critically, and water no longer reaches all households in the village.” The solution found — so that, in the City Hall’s words, “every family has access to water for the strict needs of hygiene and consumption” — was to split the village into zones and deliver by the hour.
How the schedule works
Sculeni was divided into four sectors, and water flows only between 9.00 and 18.00, in three-hour windows that rotate from day to day. There are, in essence, two patterns that alternate:
- Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 9.00–12.00 — Sectors 1 and 2; 12.00–15.00 — Sector 3; 15.00–18.00 — Sector 4.
- Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: 9.00–12.00 — Sector 3; 12.00–15.00 — Sector 4; 15.00–18.00 — Sectors 1 and 2.
The street-by-street breakdown was published by the City Hall in detailed maps, sector by sector — from Old Sculeni (Sector 1) and the village centre (Sector 2) to the Lukoil–Petrom–Bemol area (Sector 3) and the village of Blândești (Sector 4).
Those who cannot find their street in the schedule are advised to check the City Hall’s official maps, since the schedule is, by the very title of the announcement, a “modified” one — a second, adjusted version of the initial one.
An old problem, brought to the surface by the heat
The temptation is to read it all as a summer accident: heat, thirsty gardens, people leaving the hose running for hours. But these days’ crisis sits on a problem long acknowledged in Sculeni — losses in the water-supply network.
In July 2025, the Sculeni Commune Council adopted a decision specifically dedicated to preventing and combating water losses in the locality’s supply system (Decision No. 04/16 of 30 July 2025). A year earlier, in October 2024, the same council decided that the City Hall should join, as a partner, the project “Completing and commissioning the Prut–Fălești water-supply system” (Decision No. 07/01 of 16 October 2024) — that is, the fundamental solution: a new, reliable source of water for the area.
Between a leaky network and consumption that explodes on +35 °C days, the safety margin disappears fast. The hourly schedule is the emergency measure; the Prut–Fălești supply system is, on paper, the long-term answer.
What people can do now
While the schedule is in force, the authorities ask residents to use water only for the strict needs of hygiene and consumption and to give up, during the supply hours, watering gardens from the central network — exactly the consumption that collapsed the pressure. For the households of Sector 4, Blândești, where the lack of water was complained about publicly even in the days before the schedule, the supply window is all the more important to respect.
The City Hall’s underlying message remains one of practical solidarity: the less water wasted at peak hours, the more households get pressure at the tap.
Details on the distribution schedule, the cited causes and the breakdown by sectors come from the official announcement of Sculeni commune’s City Hall and the “Servicom Sculeni” utility, published on Facebook. The Sculeni Commune Council decisions on water losses (2025) and the Prut–Fălești supply system (2024) were consulted in the State Register of Local Acts.