The City of Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova, is implementing a programme to modernize the City’s water supply, sewage collection system and treatment in order to improve living conditions, reduce health risks for the City population and to prevent excessive exploitation of natural resources and environmental pollution. The programme is being carried out by the City owned water utility company, S.A. Apa-Canal Chisinau. The contents of the programme were developed in a feasibility study carried out by the EBRD in 2012.

The priority of the PIP is slightly given to wastewater which concentrates 55% of the investments. Actually, the PIP has been tailored to:
- Solve the major issue of sludge disposal at WWTP site.
- Implement a sustainable solution (1st phase of upgrading the WWTP) to reduce the volumes of sludge produced and to stabilize the sludge that could be used without any setbacks for agricultural purposes.
- Make significant energy savings.
- Optimize the pumps.
- Reduce water losses by implementing a targeted pipes renewal.
- Produce green energy (biogas).
- Produce of hydro-electricity by installing a turbine on the drinking network.

- To reduce the nuisance generated by the sludge: elimination of the odour.
- To stabilize and reduce the sludge in volume (by 1/3) for storage, which can be afterwards hygienized and reused for agriculture.
- To provide better quality of water: improved disinfection.
- To decrease the energy consumption: -12% in average.
- To reduce the number of bursts (hence water shortage) on the water network.
- To develop a more reliable system with remote data system and emergency response plan.