E.ON has turned off the gas tap for Colterm and negotiations with a new supplier have broken down. 56,000 homes, hospitals and schools in the city are left without heat and hot water because the heating company cannot run on coal alone.
“Without intervention by parliament and the state budget, Colterm won’t make it through the winter. We have held several discussions with several institutions in the country competent in the field, ANR, ANAF, to convey our point of view. We have also discussed the possibility of a loan with the Minister of Finance (…) The problem is that at the moment the public finance law does not allow us to borrow for expenditure, but only for investment. We have spoken to several companies that have mobile power plants for companies or institutions. They can even supply a heating point, the problem is that we have 5 heating points serving a small number of inhabitants. I hope to find a solution together with others, who have decision-making power”, said Dominic Fritz, Mayor of Timisoara.
Basically, from today, about 55,000 homes, several schools and hospitals will no longer be heated.
“We have two hospitals, the Odobescu Maternity Hospital and the Victor Babeș Hospital, with central heating. For the other hospitals we have spoken to the managers, we have invited them to the Emergency Situations Committee to find the best options, but, I stress, it is not an option to stay without heat for days on end and we have to find solutions (…) If there were solutions that I could find out of my pocket I would apply them, but I don’t have them. It’s a dramatic situation, when we don’t have heat in hospitals it’s a social catastrophe. We have entered the first stage of the catastrophe,” added Dominic Fritz.
Edited for English