Chişinău River Rehabilitation and Flood Protection in Moldova

Brief Description of solution(s)

EBRD is a multilateral development bank providing financial and technical support for private sector as
well as different levels of government in emerging economies. EBRD has a programme called ‘Green
Cities’ which consist of four components; development of Green City Action Plan, investing in
sustainable urban infrastructure, capacity building and trainings, supporting cities to access other
sources of green financing. In 2019, EBRD under the Green Cities programme supported the city of
Chişinău, capital of Moldova to develop its Green City Action Plan. In 2020, the municipal council of
Chişinău formally approved this plan to be their formal investment strategy.
The Green City Action Plan of Chişinău was made inclusively with input from a wide variety of
stakeholders not only city officials but academia, NGOs, local businesses, utility operators through
hosting a series of workshops and also through online survey. The inputs from the stakeholders and
the available data suggested that this plan needs to focus on fixing the climate resilience issue of the
city. So, the action plan was made with one of its objectives to strengthen the urban resilience and
came up with theories of investment measures to address this challenge including the rehabilitation of
the river Bîc which runs through the center of the city. The solutions included grey solutions such as
improvement of storm water drains as well as the green solutions such as sustainable urban drainage
solution throughout the city. The plan also includes the expansion of the catchment area and
development of recreational area around the riverbed. After the action plan was completed, a series
of studies to prepare for the implementation of the proposal were conducted.