How big the market is
For 2025, 393 companies in water collection and distribution and in wastewater collection and treatment filed financial statements: 364 in the first activity and 29 in the second. Together they had 6,278 employees and sales revenue of 2.13 billion lei. The wastewater division is small: 182 employees, and only one of its 29 companies has ten or more employees.
The average gross wage in water collection and distribution was 13,781 lei in the fourth quarter of 2025, below the economy-wide average of 16,355 lei. In wastewater collection and treatment it was 18,666 lei.
Who owns the networks and how a private company gets in
The public water supply and sewerage service is set up and organised by the local authorities. Water mains, sewer networks and treatment plants are public property of the locality or the state: they cannot be sold or pledged, and they cannot be contributed to the capital of a company, not even one founded by the town hall.
The local council chooses between direct management, through an entity of its own, and delegated management, under a contract with an operator. The law allows operators with private or mixed capital, and a newly founded company takes part in the procedure on the same terms as an existing one. The contract is awarded by public tender or by direct negotiation, under a framework procedure approved by the Government, and bids are assessed on the operator’s professional and financial guarantees and its performance indicators. Direct award is reserved for operators whose capital is entirely public.
An interested company can take the first step: the law requires the local authority to approve a feasibility study within six months of receiving a proposal from an interested investor. The contract lasts as long as needed to recoup the investment, but no more than 49 years. Assets built under the investment programme in the contract belong to the public domain and are handed over to the locality by the end of each year of operation, and the operator recovers its investments through depreciation or through the concession fee.
The ANRE licence comes on top of the contract rather than replacing it, and it is required only for operators with more than 10,000 inhabitants in their service area. Licence holders pay ANRE quarterly regulatory fees of up to 0.3% of their revenue from the service. The operator, with or without a licence, is by the law’s definition a legal person.
Investment in water operators needs prior approval
Operating water and sewerage infrastructure is a domain of importance for state security. Anyone acquiring control or a qualifying holding in an operator, or signing a concession or public-private partnership contract in this domain, must obtain approval from the Council for the Examination of Investments of Importance for State Security before investing. The rule applies to every investor, Moldovan or foreign, and the €1 million threshold that applies in other domains does not apply here. The Council decides within 45 days of receiving a complete application, and if you are not sure whether your investment falls under the law, you can ask it: the reply comes within 10 working days.
Water supply: the licence, the water use permit and the sanitary authorisation
For the ANRE licence, the company submits its financial statements or, if it is new, a bank statement, the list of public assets it operates, proof of qualified staff, the technical opinion on water metering, documents on drinking water quality and the delegated management contract specifying the service area. ANRE decides within five working days, and the licence is valid for five years throughout the country. Tariffs of licensed operators are calculated by the operator under ANRE’s methodology and approved by ANRE within 60 days. Below the 10,000-inhabitant threshold, the operator sets its tariffs every year and the local council approves them.
The licence does not cover the water itself. Any abstraction from rivers, lakes or underground that goes beyond household use needs the environmental permit for special water use, from the Environment Agency. The applicant posts a notice at the town hall, and anyone with objections can send them within 15 days. The permit is issued within 25 working days, for six years, or for 12 years if the applicant invests in a facility for treating and supplying drinking water.
Abstracting, treating and distributing drinking water also require the sanitary operating authorisation, and the producer monitors water quality under a programme approved by the National Agency for Public Health. The quality requirements are the same however the water reaches the consumer: through the network, from the source or from a tank. Delivery by tanker also falls under 36.00. By 1 January 2029, producers and operators must draw up their drinking water safety plans.
Artesian wells
In localities where the public system fully meets consumers’ demand for water, drilling new wells and using existing ones are prohibited, except where the town hall gives its consent: for a back-up source for a facility of strategic importance, or when the operator cannot cover the whole demand. Groundwater for human consumption may be used only where there is no public system supplied from surface water. Since 30 May 2026, the new Subsoil Code allows groundwater for drinking water to be authorised without surveying and approving the reserves.
Whoever abstracts water pays the water tax, of 0.3 lei per cubic metre, calculated from the meter or, without a meter, from standard abstraction rates. The tax does not apply to water supplied to households, public authorities and budget-funded institutions. The return is filed and the tax paid every six months, by the 25th of the month after each half-year.
For housing, including holiday homes, water and sewerage are zero-rated for VAT. How VAT works in other cases is explained in our guide to taxes and fees in 2026.
Sewerage and wastewater treatment
Public sewerage follows the same rules as water supply: a delegated management contract, a licence above 10,000 inhabitants, and tariffs approved by ANRE or the local council. In villages, the law allows only water supply to be organised, provided wastewater is collected in individual systems.
Sewer networks and treatment plants run on an environmental permit from the Environment Agency, valid for six years: wastewater collection and treatment is on the list of activities in the Law on industrial emissions that require one, with no capacity threshold. A treatment plant that discharges into a river or lake also needs the environmental permit for special water use. The application also includes a description of the treatment process, the composition of the pollutants and the accreditation certificate of the company’s own laboratory or the contract with an accredited laboratory. Sludge from the plants is treated and disposed of under the environmental protection rules.
The operator controls what enters its network. A business discharges wastewater into the sewer only on the basis of the connection approval, the acceptance agreement and the contract. The operator examines the file within 20 days, and the agreement is valid for up to two years. Businesses with artesian wells also submit the special water use permit. If a factory’s wastewater exceeds the permitted concentrations, the operator applies surcharges and the factory builds a pre-treatment plant. Discharging wastewater without a contract counts as an unauthorised connection.
Septic tank emptying since 5 February 2026
The regulation approved by Government Decision no. 508/2024 made emptying an obligation for the owners of individual systems. Anyone with a holding tank must sign a contract with an emptying company, and sludge from all individual systems, including small treatment plants, may be removed only by specialised companies. The systems are entered in the town hall’s register, with the emptying intervals, and the Environmental Protection Inspectorate checks the emptying and discharge contracts during inspections.
The emptying company takes the wastewater to a treatment plant and the sludge to a compliant sludge treatment plant. It keeps a register of the volumes and of the collection and discharge points, or fits its tankers with volume meters and GPS reporting and tracking systems. It sends the data every quarter to the sewerage operators it has contracts with, and they pass it on to the town halls and the inspectorate on request.
Septic tank emptying needs no licence, but it is still wastewater collection, class 37.00, so the company runs on an environmental permit from the Environment Agency, valid for six years.
New septic and holding tanks cannot be placed just anywhere: individual systems are prohibited where public sewerage already exists, and holding tanks and systems of up to 10 cubic metres per day must be at least 15 metres from buildings. The installations must meet the SM EN 12566 standards for small wastewater treatment plants and are installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and they are commissioned by a committee that includes the town hall, the owner and the installation company.
Wells and networks are built by a construction company
Drilling artesian wells and building water mains, sewer networks and treatment plants are construction work, class 42.21, not the operator’s activity. The company that carries them out has certified site managers and is entered in the State Register in the field of construction. The construction company page explains how to register and which works need a building permit.
The operator of the public water supply and sewerage service is, by law, a legal person, and the ANRE licence is granted only to legal persons. In practice, that means an SRL (limited liability company) or a joint-stock company. The regulation on septic tank emptying refers to specialised companies, without requiring any particular legal form.
The independent entrepreneur regime is not an option: no class in section E appears on its list of activities.
We handle the choice of CAEM codes, the articles of association, the filing at the Public Services Agency and the opening of the bank account. For a water and sewerage company, we also prepare the applications for the ANRE licence and for the water use and sanitary authorisations, and for a foreign company entering the market we register the Moldovan company or subsidiary. We can take over the accounting, with separate records for each regulated activity, from the first month. What each service includes is set out on the corporate services page.
