The capital’s mayor-general, Nikushor Dan, says hot water must be restored from Monday due to the outages that have affected almost half of the capital, and blames the Energy Ministry for missing the Aug. 20 deadline.

Since the beginning of August, almost half of the residents of Bucharest, whose houses are connected to the central heating system, do not have hot water. Initially, Termoenergetika stated that the problem would be resolved by August 11, then the deadline was extended to August 20. However, this deadline was not met.

Nikushor Dan said on B1Tv on Monday that Termoenergetica completed the repairs on Thursday and that the Ministry of Energy will also carry out the necessary operations: “A promise for today.”

“About 50% of Bucharest has hot water”

The mayor of the capital noted that the local authorities decided to carry out these works on the heating network now in order to prevent possible large-scale damage in the winter.

• “For about two weeks, people did not have hot water because we had a so-called house, that is, a place where hot water is transferred from one network to another, which was 55 years old. There was no further intervention. And I was in danger of failing this winter. And then the decision was made: we will do it this summer. We tried to deviate to sectors 2 and 3 from CET Progresu and it broke. And then CET Progresu stopped and until it was fixed…
• We finished on Thursday, last week, so it took about two weeks to build this hostel, there was no hot water about halfway through (from Bucharest, no) (…) Until Thursday, it was our job. Starting from Friday, I think the issue is divided again. We transport, and the ministry produces. From Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today it is the responsibility of the ministry, which was not ready with its CET for production,” said Nikushor Dan.

Asked what percentage of Bucharest has hot water at the moment, the capital’s mayor replied: “About 50% of Bucharest has hot water, because until Thursday that was our job.”

“We have statistical data on people’s satisfaction”

He claimed that the current administration has allocated three times more than the average amount allocated for heating in the period 2016-2022. Regarding hot water losses, Nikusor Deng clarified that they started to decrease from 2021, after increasing values ​​were recorded for ten years in a row.

“We have statistical data on people’s satisfaction. The worst winter was 2020. 2021 was a little better, 2022 was a little better. This winter will be better. (…) I intervened exactly where I knew there was the greatest risk. What is Timisoara Boulevard? We will not finish Calea Văcăreşti this year, but we have started working on Calea Văcăreşti, where it is a sensitive issue,” Nikušor Dan said.