Inhabitants of three localities in Ştefan Vodă district celebrated the street illumination service kick-off under the event “Dance of light”. On Easter day, 200 LEDs simultaneously turned on in villages Popeasca, Ermoclia and Feşteliţa, Ştefan Vodă district, due to the creation of a specialised enterprise for the first time in the country.

The event „Dance of light” organised by the three mayoralties in the centre of Popeasca village was attended by about 300 people who were glad to benefit from a service which they hadn’t had for the past 20 years.

„We are proud to have succeeded in bringing light to our villages. The issue of street illumination had to be solved, so that women, children and aged people feel secure in the street at night. All of us, three mayors, joined our efforts and implemented a project for the establishment of municipal enterprise ”Lumen-Ermoclia”, which will ensure streel illumination services”, stated Alexandru Pavlicenco, Mayor of Ermoclia commune.

The 20 km of street illumination networks will be extended to secondary streets of the three localities in the upcoming period 2014-2024.

„For 20 years we used to step out in dark streets and we arrived to see that as something normal. Today, once the light appeared, we realize how complicated it was for us and our children to walk in the dark, even on the main streets in the village”, said Sergiu Golubenco, inhabitant of Popeasca village.

The enterprise ”Lumen-Ermoclia” will provide maintenance services for street illumination networks, also maintenance of electric power networks within public institutions and services for citizens of the three localities.

„At the local level, mayors and inhabitants of villages in Moldova have plenty of problems to solve in order to have access to quality services. Cooperation between communities is a driving force likely to change things for the better, at the local level. Only by joining efforts we can identify and implement the best solutions at the lowest costs. Today’s example is very illustrative: they joined their efforts and managed to sort out common problems, and now the local authorities together with village inhabitants are celebrating their success”, said Ghenadie Ivascenco, Consultant for inter-community cooperation within Joint Integrated Local Development Programme.

The municipal enterprise „Lumen-Ermoclia” is one of the 10 inter-community cooperation projects implemented in several districts of Republic of Moldova, which enforce the provisions of R. Moldova’s National Decentralisation Strategy, approved by the Parliament of Republic of Moldova in April 2012.

The total grants value provided for implementation of projects amounts to one million USD. More than 120 000 citizens from 40 localities in Moldova will be the direct beneficiaries of the projects. This project is implemented with the assistance of Joint Integrated Local Development Programme (UNDP Moldova and UN Women) with the financial support of the Government of Denmark.