On April 22 this year, a group of journalists from the television channels - Moldova 1, Canal Regional and Aici TV/Elita TV, as well as from Radio Moldova and Radio Chişinău, visited several places where projects of Centre Regional Development Agency are being implemented. Journalists discussed with project beneficiaries, and with those who contributed to project implementation.

The journalists’ first destination was Vărzăreşti village, Nisporeni district, where 6 km of road were rehabilitated during the project „Developing the transport infrastructure for capitalizing the touristic potential of Centre development region”. The goal of the project is to increase the number of visitors to the main touristic objectives in the district, such as Vărzăreşti Monastery, and to develop the business environment in the region by creating jobs. The total project cost amounts to 28,699 million MDL, the sources being allocated from the National Regional Development Fund (NRDF).

The authorities claim that the road has been built in the 80’s of last century and its condition was 70% deteriorated. Ghenadie Verdeş, chairperson of Nisporeni district, specifies: „The development of infrastructure for any community is a priority. In the past, the road was inaccessible, and for this reason – the access to the main touristic objective in the area, Vărzăreşti Monastery, was restricted. After road rehabilitation, the road is traversed by 200-300 car units on a daily basis, and the inhabitants are very satisfied”.

Maria Ursu, inhabitant of Vărzăreşti village, confirms the words of Mr. Verdeş: „We are very pleased that the road has been rehabilitated and we finally abandoned rubber boots, and we hope that other roads from our village look the same as this one in the future”.

The second destination of the visit was the drinking water supply system in localities: Mănoileşti, Unţeşti, Alexeevca, Lidovca, Cetireni, Floriţoaia Veche, Florițoaia Nouă, Grozasca and Novaia Nicolaevca from  Ungheni district. Under this project „12 000 citizens provided with drinking water in 12 localities”, 23 km of aqueduct and a water testing unit have been built, the cost of the project amounting to 24.87 million MDL, from which 21.37 million MDL representing the contribution of NRDF, and 3.5 million MDL – contribution of beneficiaries.

The journalists visited the water testing unit and the secondary school from Mănoileşti village, where there is running water already.

Ion Negură, project manager, says that water reaches the testing unit from the Prut river, and here it is subject to various chemical procedures, being turned into drinking water: „Both in Mănoileşti commune and other beneficiary villages, water is very much desired by the inhabitants, since 95 % of water from regional wells is of low quality. At present, seven schools and kindergartens benefit from drinking water, and we hope to bring tap water to people’s houses by this summer, and there remains only the procedure for connecting households, installing water meters, etc.” 

Tatiana Caniţa, head of communal household of Mănoileşti secondary school, talked about the benefits of this project: „In order to prepare the food for the 103 pupils from primary school who are being fed at the canteen of the secondary school, we had to carry several barrels of water from village wells by carriage, and not from any well, but only from those authorized by the specialists. The procedure was rather difficult, but now it is much easier, we have everything at land”.

Some journalists visiting these objects claim they are interested in such issues, as these are of great benefit to the citizens, who are, consequently, interested in developing their community. Maria Trifan, journalist at Radio Moldova mentions: „People are interested in issues directly related to their wealth. We have recently produced some shows about regional development policies in Moldova, and our listeners would daily call us, address various questions, or inquire about various projects which contribute to their community’s development”.

Next week, the journalists will visit several regional development objects in the north and south of R. Moldova.

The visit occurred under the project „Enhancing the visibility of regional development programs in audio-visual mass-media”, financed by German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ) and grounded on a partnership and cooperation agreement signed by API and Ministry of Regional Development and Constructions.