WaterMoldova

How can we ensure Moldova's rural communities have access to safe drinking water? And how can we ensure sustainable implementation of good practices related to water use, hygiene and sanitation within communities?

The Republic of Moldova is an inland state between Romania and Ukraine in Eastern Europe. Only one in three people in rural areas has access to piped water and nearly one million rely on shallow contaminated wells for drinking water, eighty percent of which do not meet drinking water standards. BOSAQ set up a project for the government of Moldova, with the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) and Howest as partners, to provide the population of rural villages with climate-resilient access to clean and safe drinking water.

Climate Change

Within the project, knowledge building and dissemination efforts will be undertaken where the goal is to establish ownership of climate-adaptive drinking water supplies within communities in Moldova. Howest will investigate how to promote behavioral change in water use and reuse, hygiene and sanitation within local communities. VITO will conduct an impact study of solar-powered decentralized drinking water supply (Q-drop). This study will assess scalability to other regions vulnerable to climate change and disseminate the results both nationally and internationally. Scenarios for sustainable supply of decentralized drinking water will be developed that can be considered as evidence-based support for Moldova's future climate adaptation policies.