Northern farmers fear higher water tariffs; some may quit farming
Farmers in the north of the country who use water from the Soroca–Bălți pipeline for irrigation are facing an uncertain situation due to the state-owned enterprise “Acva-Nord” entering a restructuring procedure. They are worried that they will be forced to pay much higher tariffs. Some farmers do not rule out giving up their businesses. Also, the ministry is looking for solutions.
Forty-four farmers from the districts of Soroca, Sângerei and Florești use water from the Soroca–Bălți pipeline for irrigation. Many of them grow vegetables, which require constant irrigation.
“If the problem appears that the price of water will increase, we will give up growing vegetables, because the cost price of vegetables will be very high and it will not be profitable to sell, and we will not have buyers at such a price. If the price increases, there will be new contracts; for our part, we will not sign a contract with such a price and we risk going bankrupt or looking for another solution, crops that do not need irrigation,” said farmer Svetlana Albu.
“Acva-Nord” was created in 2004, and in December 2025 it was declared bankrupt. Farmers were informed that, to continue receiving irrigation water, they must conclude new contracts with licensed municipal operators, who, under the law, can set the delivery price.
“We already have 25 hectares with a centralized irrigation system; if we talk about all our colleagues in Soroca district, we have hundreds of hectares of irrigation. We all received a notification from ‘Acva-Nord’ informing us that we must switch to another operator for delivering irrigation water, which would mean a much higher price, and we did not agree,” said farmer Victor Său.
So far, farmers are not paying extra, and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture assure that tariffs will not increase.
“The price of water supplied by ‘Acva-Nord’ is set by the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE). ANRE has set a price of 6.09 lei per cubic metre. We want to, and will, amend the law so that agricultural producers who have contracts with ‘Acva-Nord’ remain at the tariff set by ANRE,” said State Secretary Vasile Șarban.
Farmers in the Republic of Moldova pay different tariffs for water used to irrigate their land. These range between 3.50 lei and 11 lei for one cubic metre of water.
