The Republic of Moldova is situated in the southeast of Europe and occupies the biggest area between two rivers – the Dniester and the Prut, and part of the left-hand bank in the middle and low course of the Dniester river. Not having an outlet to the sea the country geographically belongs to the Black Sea region. Moldova has an outlet to the Danube.   Moldova belongs to the countries of the Black Sea basin. It has an outlet to the Black Sea through the Danube river and the Dniester firth. Large transboundary rivers which flow through the country’s territory are one of the main contributors of pollutants to the Black Sea.

Moldova borders on Ukraine in the North, East and South, and on Romania in the West. Its area is 33,7 thousand sq. km. 

The country comprises 32 districts, 5 municipalities and 2 autonomous regions.

The population of Moldova is 4.2 mln. people. The majority of people are Moldovans but there are also Ukrainians, Russians, Gagausians, Bulgarians, Jews, and Gypsies.  

There are not many big rivers in the country but there are many small and medium ones. Except the Dniester and the Prut all the rivers use local flowing. The biggest river, the Dniester, flows from the Carpathians. In 1954 on the Dniester River near the city of Dubossary a hydro-power station was built and a large reservoir - “the Dubossary Sea”, which is the country’s biggest reservoir, - was created above the dam. The Kuchuhury firth is in the Dniester lowlands. The Prut which also flows from the Carpathians has a big valley on the territory of Moldova with terraces and a developed back-water. Unlike the Dniester, the Prut is navigable only for a small distance.  There are many lakes to the South of Kagula city in a wide back-water of the Prut. Moldovan inner rivers are shallow. The Byk River which flows through Chisinau is dammed.
An artificial reservoir “the Chisinau Sea” has a mirror area of about 1000 ha. 

Within the Moldovan part of the basin, the Dniester River is the source of water for the populations and industries of the following towns: Balti, Chisinau, Soroca, Orhei, Ribnita, Dubossary, Tiraspol, Bendery.  The Dniester is currently facing severe environmental problems due to pollution. For example, due to intensive cattle breeding the Dniester water is severely polluted with dung and other organic substances and the bank soil is damaged with erosion.

At the border of two countries (Ukraine and Moldova) a storage plant has been under construction for two years. The construction work has seriously damaged the river ecosystem mostly on the territory of Moldova.  Here due to temperature imbalance and high water clarity the bottom silts up quickly and the spawn wastes away. The discharged water from the plant changes the river level at this segment.  

The environmental degradation of the Dniester River is aggravated by the frozen Trans-Dniestrian conflict, which inter alia impacts negatively on the maintenance of the joint wastewater treatment infrastructure. The problem takes on transboundary dimensions as polluted water flows into Moldova from Ukraine and thereafter back into Ukraine and is discharged into the Black Sea south-west of the city of Odessa. (source: Transboundary Dniester River Project )

Under the Soviet Union the water basin was managed as a single whole, and since 1991 Moldova and Ukraine have been separately managing their respective parts. A Bilateral Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the Republic of Moldova regarding the Joint Use and Protection of Border Waters   was signed in 1994 and a Meeting of Plenipotentiaries was instituted as a tool for collaboration. The Agreement and its institutional mechanism is in need of revision and renewal, especially  taking into account the principles of Integrated Water Resource Management and the necessity to improve and promote openness and transparency of the decision-making process.