Length of water distribution networks, sewerage and natural gas pipelines increased in 2023

The length of the drinking water distribution network has increased by 2.2% in 2023 against the previous year, while the sewerage pipe routes were longer by 4.6% and the gas pipelines went up by 3.7% show the data published on Friday by the National Institute for Statistics (INS).According to the official statistics, as of 31 December 2023, the length of water supply pipelines was 95,111 kilometres nationwide. The amount of drinking water distributed to consumers was 790.041 million cubic metres (mc), 2.827 million mc below 2022. Of this amount, drinking water distributed for domestic use was 600.79 million cubic metres, equivalent to 76% of the total. Also, the proportion of drinking water distributed to consumers who have installed meters in the total distributed stood at 95.2%, the difference being recorded in the "pau?al" system. The INS data show, at the same time, that in the case of the sewerage network, in 2023, the activity of sewage disposal from households and economic and social establishments happened in 314 municipalities and cities and in 1,253 communes. During the analysed period, the total length of the sewage network was of 47,873 km, out of which 27,320 km in municipalities and cities. As compared to the previous year, in 2023, the length of the sewage network extended by 2,110.9 km (namely with 293.1 km in the urban environment and with 1,817.8 km in the rural environment).According to the quoted source, in the natural gas distribution, in Romania, at the end of last year, the total length of the pipes was 49.144.2 km out of which 26.073.3 km in municipalities and cities.During 2023, natural gas was distributed to 998 localities, out of which 254 municipalities and cities. Similarly, the length of the gas distribution pipelines extended by 1,747 km against 2022.The volume of natural gas distributed was 7.322 billion cubic metres, with 1,404 billion cubic metres less, from one year to another. Out of the total of the natural gas volumes distributed in 2023 with a quantity of 3.099 billion cubic metres were destined to household consumption (42.3% against the total volume of natural gas distributed).In the context, out of the total volume of distributed gas, 85.5% went to the urban environment.In the thermal energy segment, 5,665,850 Gcal were distributed in the previous year, 151,317 Gcal less than in 2022, of which 4,802,091 Gcal for the population (-47,920 Gcal compared to the previous year). Thermal energy was distributed in 59 localities in Romania, of which 52 municipalities and cities.   At the end of 2023, the intravillage area recorded 476,792 hectares, 5,077 hectares more than in 2022. In the area of municipalities and cities, the surface area of green spaces in the form of parks, public gardens, children's playgrounds, sports grounds and sports facilities totalled 33,620 hectares last year.