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An open trench cut into the asphalt of a city street, with a thick metal pipe exposed and water pooling at the bottom; beside it, excavated earth and pavement kerbs.
PUBLIC SERVICES

Seven hours announced, a second day without water: Ungheni District Hospital on the list of those affected

A leak on a water main 500 millimetres in diameter at 8 Vasile Lupu Street was announced on Thursday for a seven-hour intervention, between 09:00 and 16:00. On Friday, the operator said the works were continuing, “as unforeseen technical complications arose during the intervention”, with a new deadline estimated at 17:00. The list of affected consumers on the second day also includes Ungheni District Hospital, which did not appear on the first one. In 2024, the operator reported 270 unplanned interruptions, 268 of which were resolved within the regulatory deadline.

Ion Calmis·17 July 2026· News
2/3 confirmed · DOCUMENTS — pending· got a tip? write to us →
Clear water poured into a plain glass tumbler, next to a metal water meter and a copper pipe with condensation droplets, in cool light, no people in the frame.
PUBLIC SERVICES

Ungheni doesn't have Moldova's most expensive water: at 40.01 lei, it pays under half of Glodeni

Dozens of Ungheni residents wrote, under the news of the price hike, that the town supposedly has the most expensive water in Moldova. The tariffs approved by ANRE show the opposite: at 40.01 lei/m³, only seven towns charge less, while at least nineteen — from Cantemir to Glodeni — charge more, some nearly double. The difference comes from the number of consumers and the water source: Ungheni draws it, treated, from the Prut, while towns like Rîșcani pump it cheaply from artesian wells. And the sense that we pay the most comes from something else — the tariff has just risen, eleven days after we were promised it would stay unchanged.

Ion Calmis·8 July 2026· Explainer
2/3 confirmed · PEOPLE — pending· got a tip? write to us →
Illustration: a water meter with its dial in the foreground and droplets on the metal, in cool light, no people in the frame.
PUBLIC SERVICES

Water in Ungheni rises to 40.01 lei/m³: ANRE approved an increase, eleven days after the "maintenance" announced by the city hall

On Tuesday, 7 July, the ANRE board approved new tariffs for "Apă-Canal Ungheni" SRL: drinking water rises from 23.54 to 25.17 lei/m³, and sewerage for household consumers from 14.71 to 14.84 lei/m³ — 40.01 lei/m³ in total, 1.76 lei more (+4.6%). The increase comes eleven days after the Ungheni Municipal Council announced the tariff would stay at 38.25 lei and that the operator had "dropped" an increase. The ANRE document shows, however, that the operator's tariff file was still under review — the agency cut it, rather than rejecting it.

Ion Calmis·7 July 2026· News
A newly cast concrete manhole with a cast-iron cover, installed at the edge of a street in Cornești, with freshly dug earth around it and a passer-by on a path in the background.
PUBLIC SERVICES

How Cornești ran water and sewer pipes under the R1 highway: directional drilling, no trench

The Cornești town hall says it has completed the extension of the water and sewerage network on Ștefan cel Mare Street — work that included running the pipes under the R1 Chișinău–Ungheni national road, at kilometre 77+215, by drilling without opening a trench or closing the highway. The town's network was built through the “Satul European” programme, and centralised sewerage — which Cornești has — remains the rare part of Moldova's infrastructure.

Ion Calmis·6 July 2026· News
Moldovan car license plates and a stack of vehicle documents on a counter in a public-services office.
NATIONAL

Imported car with no original papers? Ungheni drivers no longer travel to Chișinău or Bălți to register it

Since late June, the Public Services Agency has simplified the registration of imported cars that lack original documents or have only a copy of the registration certificate. The step that forced owners to drive the car to one of three identification offices — in Chișinău, Bălți or Cahul — and wait up to three days has been dropped: technical identification is now done at any subdivision that registers vehicles, including in Ungheni.

Ion Calmis·3 July 2026· ExplainerWHAT'S AT STAKE
2/3 confirmed · PEOPLE — pending· got a tip? write to us →
Illustration: clear water flowing from a metal tap next to a domestic water meter, in cool light, no people in the frame.
PUBLIC SERVICES

Water tariff in Ungheni stays at 38.25 lei/m³: the operator dropped a 4.52-lei increase

On 26 June, the Ungheni Municipal Council adopted an official position backing the maintenance of current tariffs for water, sewerage and wastewater treatment charged by "Apă-Canal Ungheni" SRL — 38.25 lei per cubic metre. The operator, wholly owned by the municipality, had first filed calculations with ANRE for a 4.52-lei/m³ increase (almost 12%), then opted to keep the price. The decision does not freeze the tariffs on its own, however: the price of water in Ungheni is approved by ANRE, and the councillors' position will be forwarded to the agency.

Ion Calmis·26 June 2026· News
An old, rusty cast-iron water main dug up in a muddy trench in the middle of a street; water leaks from a joint, with a worn manhole cover nearby.
PUBLIC SERVICES

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.

Ion Calmis·25 June 2026· Explainer
Illustration: blue industrial pumps, valves and large-diameter steel pipes at a water-treatment station, no people in the frame.
PUBLIC SERVICES

Apă-Canal Ungheni replaces pumps and 350 metres of pipe at the station that treats water from the Prut

At the station that cleans Prut water before it reaches the taps of Ungheni, the local utility Apă-Canal Ungheni has already replaced more than 350 metres of pipe and 25 valves and installed the first of four new high-capacity pumps. The works are the station component of a regional project worth around 32 million lei, financed from the National Fund for Regional and Local Development through ADR Centru, with a contribution from the Ungheni District Council. The operator warns there will be further temporary water shut-offs before completion.

Ion Calmis·19 June 2026· News