WE BRING EUROPE HOME // Edinet municipality turns into developed, modern city with EU's support

Modernized residential districts, extended local public services - these are new benefits provided to the residents of the Edinet municipality, with the European Union’s financial support

Better living conditions for the residents of five residential districts beneficiaries of a contest of EU grants, as well as new public security services and other modernized, digitalized public services and based on environment-friendly technologies are already felt in the Edinet municipality. The new public services include the metering of the water supply services, investments in the primary education system in the settlement and the digitalization of the process of residents’ informing.   

These outstanding results were registered within the project titled, Edinet – city with perspectives for future, financed by the European Union and implemented by the Edinet city hall, in partnership with the city hall of Alba Iulia, Romania.  

„The Edinet city successfully shows how the partnerships between the local authorities sand the civil society can be turned to good account within programmes financed by the European Union and its member states. I am delighted by the results recorded within our project implemented here and I voice hope that these good practices will be widely taken over also by other settlements of Moldova. The goal is one – to improve the living standards of the people, this being also the cornerstone in the process of negotiations on Moldova’s accession to the European Union,’’ Ambassador of the European Union to Moldova  Jānis Mažeiks said.   

The public security service through the video supervision of the public areas from the city will enhance the safety of people during walks in park or when crossing the principal street, as through these cameras, the Municipal Police, in partnership with the Edinet city hall, will supervise the public order and will intervene quickly when needed. The visualized information will be stocked on a server for an enough period of time, in order to provide the intervention necessary.   

For this, 52 supervision cameras were set in public areas, the crosswalks from the principal street of the city and smart cameras at the entrances in the city, able to read from distance the data on vehicles’ registration. The public recordings will be accessible also through the urban platform, https://smartedinet.md,  under implementation. This service was developed in parallel with the modernization of the public illumination, with an investment of over 600,000 euros and creation of the platform of urban data, backed with over 46,000 euros – all implemented with the European Union’s financial support.     

At the same time, a system of metering of the water not bringing incomes within the public water supply service was set within the project. Over 450 smart meters were set for this, in an area with about 500 water consumers. These meters measure the consumption of water, as well as monitor the global consumption, in order to identify and prevent the unjustified losses of water in the network. About 360,000 euros was invested from funds of the EU-financed project for the development and piloting of this system.   

At the same time, Smart-Labs were created and endowed at the headquarters of four kindergartens from Edinet with the support of the project. In this way, the children of the preparatory groups will be trained by teachers according to a specially elaborated curriculum. Each Smart-Lab was designed and equipped, so that it can host simultaneously up to 15 children. The European Union’s project earmarked about 70,000 euros for this initiative.      

It is also worth to be mentioned the works carried out by those five associations of tenants from Edinet, beneficiaries of European Union grants worth over 169,000 euros. The grants were turned to account for the modernization of the adjacent structure of the residential buildings, as well as the efficient arrangement of the public spaces in districts, pavement, arrangement of the functional areas, setting of doors, smart illumination and solutions of managing the rain waters and the green areas with automated irrigation system.

In December 2023, a string of other modernized and digitalized public services were inaugurated within the project, including the system of sustainable public transport, smart street illumination, investments in the education system in the settlement and others.   

The Island of Dream is scheduled to be inaugurated in the Vasile Alecsandri Park from the Edinet city in next autumn. The island will be fully modernized and will include areas for walk, sport, exhibitions, playground, movie theatre, amphitheatre, landing stage and others.   

The goal of the project, Edinet – city with perspective of future, under implementation on the period a 1 March 2021 – 28 February 2025, is to improve the quality of the urban development, the public services and, in general, the living conditions in the Edinet city through applying smart solutions in more sectors of the urban development: local development, public services, living districts, business and education.   

The project’s budget is of 4.4 million euros, of which 4.14 million euros is European Union’s grant through the programme, Local Authorities: partnerships for sustainable cities 2020, and the rest – the contribution of the implementation partners.

The project started through the working out of the General Urban Plan. It provides for the city’s territorial development for the next 15 years.

Correspondent: Lilia Grubii