The Dniester/Nistru River is a transboundary watercourse shared by Moldova and Ukraine. Both countries are Parties of the Protocol on water and health (London, 1999). Currently the Dniester River management is regulated according to the bilateral Dniester Treaty (Rome, 2012), which covers all issues of water use, quality monitoring protective policy. The Dniester River is a source of potable water for many upstream towns as well for the cities of Balți, Chișinău and Odessa. In the years of independence many sewage treatment plants became obsolete and are now either out of function, or realize the only physical treatment from particles. The bacteriological treatment is usually absent. The middle-size town of Soroca with population over 37.000 does not have the sewage treatment plant at all. The monitoring of Dniester River water quality demonstrates its relatively good level of hydrochemical parameters (classes I, II, III), when water bacteriological data mostly correspond to IV and V quality classes.
The bacteriological quality and organic pollution of waters in small and middle rivers, the Dniester tributaries, is even worth – here are two main polluters – communal sewage waters and spills of the processing industry. The major part of these rivers water belongs to classes IV and V. The main source of drinking water supply in rural Moldova is groundwater sources, of which about 100% of the rural population and 30% of the urban population, or 65% of the total population of the country. From the surface sources, the most important is the Dniester River, which accounts for 32%, the Prut River - 3%, other surface sources make up 0.2%. The Water and Health Protocol target level of the quality indicators of surface water used for drinking water supply in terms of the content of enterococci and E. coli to the level: by 2025 to the 2nd quality class - was partially achieved. The results show that in most areas this has been achieved: Dniester River - 66% corresponds to I-II classes, p. Prut - 76% corresponds to I-II classes. These data indicate that microbial pollution of the waters of the Dniester. So the water supply and sanitation are still remaining the challenges for the wellbeing of the population and the authorities of the Republic of Moldova. Currently in Moldova is revising the National Program for the implementation of the Protocol on Water and Health in the Republic of Moldova until 2030.