#distribution network

Ungheni's water is being modernised for tens of millions, yet it keeps breaking: 270 failures in a year on half-century-old pipes

Two outages in two days, on different streets, and the operator itself admits in the notice that „failures on the distribution network cannot be anticipated”. The explanation is in the figures: Ungheni municipality has about 139 kilometres of water pipes, more than 80% of them cast iron and steel aged 45–60 years, and in 2024 there were nearly 270 unplanned failures — around five a week. The big money invested in „Ungheni's water” (a project of about 32 million lei, plus European funds) went, however, to the source and to transport — the treatment plant, the trunk main, monitoring — not to replacing the pipes under the streets. That is why the water is both being modernised and constantly cut off.