Monday July 14, 2003 its excellence the ambassador of France in Romania invites us to the reception which it gives in the honor of the national festival. We meet there Mr general manager Baude of Veolia Romania (ex-Vivendi Water). It is open and receptive with our project and an appointment obtains to us.

Wednesday July 16, 2003: Discussion with Mr Directing Chiru of the service communication and quality of Apa Nova Bucuresti.

About Rumanian nationality, it speaks perfectly French and English.
Course: Study at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (Doctorate). In 1996 it makes a post-doctorate in Katholiek Universiteit of Leuven (Belgium).

Questions:

Hydrotour: Is the output of drinking water of Bucharest equivalent to that of Paris and Berlin joined together, why?

Mr. Chiru: Two principal causes

The water Consumption in Romania and more particularly in Bucharest is different from that which you know in France and Germany. There is not here a culture of the economy of water as on your premise. The low price of water is one of the reasons of this overconsumption.
Comparative data
- the m³d' water in Bucharest costs 0,24€, in Paris 2,20€
- 1 package of Rumanian cigarettes (1,10€) = 3000 Liters of water in Bucharest = 500 Liters of water in Paris.
Water accounts for 2% of the Rumanian household budget.
The escapes of the distribution network which are estimated at roughly 50% of the production out of drinking water.

H: Why the streets of Bucharest are not they not cleaned with water, so really it is if not very expensive?

Mr. C: Enough oddly Rumanian consumes it is true much water, but continuous to want to clean their dry city (with the brush). It is a manner like another of employing world. Moreover machines of cleaning of the streets are expensive and today it is not the priority of the town of invest in such machines.

H: Which are the projects being studied in this moment at Apa Nova?

Mr. C: Two projects,

Apa Nova projects in the 5 years has just built a station of purification if and only if, Europe grants an aid to him, in the 10 years if necessary.
Another project being studied the "social tariff". This tariff would allow the families most stripped to have an access to drinking water.
But Apa Nova is confronted within the framework of its activity with surprising contradictions. For example, the poor families have often just enough money to treat to a portable telephone and a television, but as soon as it is a question of paying a water invoice there is no more personne…

H: Which is the percentage of the population which is not connected in Bucharest?

Mr. C: It is not rare, indeed, to see people drawing water at the boundaries fountains and in the wells. This population not-connected to the system accounts for 15% of the inhabitants, that is to say 300.000 people. Apa Nova has the load of the maintenance of these "district distributors". On the 1.700.000 people only connected 2% are not compteurisées. What wants to say that water arrives at the foot of the building, but we are not able to differently quantify their consumption than by approximation.

H: Which are the axes of communication which Apa Nova uses to be made hear?

Mr. C: We use primarily three axes of communication

1. The customer
2. local councillors
3. Media

We regularly organize meetings with the customers in the form of round tables. We convene also the persons in charge for blocks (syndic of building) to make an inventory of fixtures.

H: What the durable development for a company like Apa Nova?

Mr. C: For Apa Nova the durable development means above all to respect the contract of one 25 years duration concession renewable.
This contract stipulates 25 points of which most important:
1. increase in the output network (reduction in the escapes);
2. maintenance and improvement of quality water to the tap.

With that is added an emergency level:
1. alternate water supply in the event of problem (by tanker);
2. devices anti-overflow of the sewers (pumps).

H: And for you, whom the equation water means - men - durable development?

Mr. C: The durable development is made by the Men, moreover any development in general is made by the Man, and must remain related to the factor of the environment.

H: Think that water is the priority of the durable development today?

Yes water is of course the priority of the durable development, only one to be alive can hold 3 days without water and that 2 minutes without air…L' water thus after the air the most significant factor of the environment is. As a proof everywhere where there is water, there has human development!

Thank you with Mr Chiru to have answered our questions and Olivier Blanchard for information of a technical nature.

To know some more about Apa Nova Bucuresti

Apa Nova is in load only of the production of cold water. Hot water was collective in all the towns of Romania. What wants to say, that the private individuals did not have of water-heater on their premises.
Hot water comes from factories which use inherent heat in their activity to heat water. This astute process appears expensive with maintenance. It is thus replaced gradually by the individual water-heater.

Key figures of 2002

Produced Volumes: 548.250.000 m³
Consumed volumes (drinking water): 298.000.000 m³
Consumed volumes (water industrialist):29.340.000 m³
Evacuated volumes (cleansing): 222.050.000 m³
Length of the distribution network: 2098 km, 21% of the conduits of Bucharest one more than 60 years.
Length of the network of cleansing: 1769 km

Short presentation of the feeding systems out of water and cleansing of Bucharest

Water supply:
The water supply of Bucharest follows the following circuit: collecting, transport of raw water, treatment, transport of drinking water, storage, pumping and finally distribution.

Origin of water:
Water necessary to drinking water and the industrial water supply of the town of Bucharest for for principal origin collectings of surface water and faces underground (well).

Surface water:
The rivers of Dâmbovita, Colentina and Arges provide the major part of drinking water and industrial.

Subsoil waters:
The subsoil waters are collected starting from the underground faces of Arcuda, Bragadiru and Ulmi, and of the wells of Bucharest.

The transport of raw water:
The raw water coming from the sources of surface is transported towards the stations of treatment or the users

Water treatment of surface:
The town of Bucharest has two stations of treatment of Rosu and surface water:Arcuda
Station of Arcuda: 745.000 m³/jour
Station of Rosu:520.000 m³/jour
This joined together capacity was often exceeded to sometimes reach a day labourer production of 1,5 m³/jour million.

The transport of drinking water:
The treated water produced in the stations of Rosu and Arcuda and that coming from the face of underground collecting is conveyed gravitationally by a network complexes aqueducts an overall length of 155 km.

The storage of drinking water:
To ensure peak demand, this one are higher than the total time capacity of production (factory and well), of the tanks storage primary education were built upstream of the stations of pumping.

The pumping of drinking water:
The pressure of water depends on the height of constructions in Bucharest, it are varied. For this reason the pressure of water is obtained in two levels
- Low pressure 4 bars
- High pressure 5 bars
There are 38 stations of repompage and 220 installations of overpressure. The current rated capacity of pumping is of 2.290.000 m³/jour and the needs for the users are of 1.500.000 m³/jour

The cleansing (sewers):
The drainage used, rain water, surface and exhaustion water of Bucharest is done by only one network (unit network).

Today, there is no more station of purification in Bucharest.

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