CLUJ WATER SUPPLY BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE
VICTOR-LUCIAN CROITORU, DORIN CIATARAS, CALIN NEAMTU
ABSTRACT - CLUJ WATER SUPPLY BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE. 1892: By Cluj Cityhall decision, Water and Sewage Plants are established, taking over the patrimony available at the date:
-"Barnutiului" Garden source, about 1,700 cubic meters/day
-One 140 cubic meter storage tank within "Carolina" Hospital
-4.4 km of water network, 0.13 km of sewage network
-The city has some 35,000 inhabitants
Such is the short description in some monographies the begining of the institutionalized water supply in the town of Cluj.
Today? Exactly how since 1995 the history of Cluj Napoca municipality could not be described outside the development of the county system, in the same way, since 2006 the development of the county water and sewage infrastructure could no longer be sepparated from the Cluj-Salaj regional one and in the same way the future could not be imagined outside the development of the Somes Tisa basin.
The facts of this development? From 1887 to 2010 and looking forward toward 2018, from 4.4 km of water network at the end of the 18th century to a regional system measuring 1060 km with 3 water treatment plants in two counties, from 0.13 km of sewage to 730 km with 13 waste water treatment plants. From 35,000 inhabitants to a population of three quarters of million people.
Between these facts are almost 120 years, major modernization and expansion investment programs amounting to more than 334 Million Euro's (within the last 10 years).
This is the essence of Cluj water supply history in amazing but dry figures which cannot depict the people, nor their thoughts, problems efforts, plans to achieve the creation of a modern utility infrastructure worthy of an european community of the XXIst century.