Renata Zaharia

Biography

Renata Zaharia was born on 5 June 1967 in the town of Rîșcani. She graduated from the Technical University of Moldova with a degree in heat and gas supply and ventilation, and has worked at the Rîșcani district heating company since 1989: first as a technician, then as an engineer, and since 2002 as chief engineer.

### Education

- (1985–1989) — Technical University of Moldova, specialty: heat and gas supply, ventilation

### Professional experience

- (1989–1994) — technician, Rîșcani district heating company
- (1994–2002) — engineer, Rîșcani district heating company
- since 2002 — chief engineer, Rîșcani district heating company

She is married and, together with her husband, is raising a daughter.

### Key facts

- Year of birth: 1967
- Place of birth: Rîșcani, Rîșcani district
- Profession: engineer
- Current position: chief engineer of the Rîșcani district heating company
- Education: Technical University of Moldova, heat and gas supply and ventilation

Views and principles

I have decided to run for the Rîșcani District Council because 35 years in district heating have taught me one simple thing: warmth in people's homes is not a luxury — it is the duty of those who run the town.

I was born in Rîșcani and have worked here all my life: from technician to chief engineer of the company that heats the town. I know every main pipeline and every heating substation. I know what a burst pipe in January means, what a bill a pensioner cannot pay means, and what an entire apartment block without hot water for months means.

If you elect me, I will fight for concrete things: modernising the heating networks so we stop heating the ground instead of apartments — we all pay for the losses; a thermal rehabilitation programme for apartment blocks, so bills go down, not up; and stable hot water for every block in town. Tariffs must be fair, and people's money must show up in new pipes, not in losses.

All my life I have been responsible for something invisible but felt in every home: warmth. An engineer does not promise — she calculates, verifies and repairs. That is how I will work on the council too: with figures, not with words.

This candidacy is not about office — it is about responsibility. Together we can make winter in Rîșcani warm for everyone, not just for those who can afford it.

Career analysis

Renata Zaharia's career was built from the ground up, pipe by pipe. As a technician she learned the networks in the field — not from diagrams; as an engineer she learned to design and repair them; as chief engineer she is responsible for the warmth of an entire town. A councillor who knows infrastructure at this level cannot be fooled with figures.

Two decades as chief engineer mean two decades of technical decisions with little money: what gets repaired first, what is postponed, how to get through winter. That school of priorities is exactly what a council dividing a limited budget needs.

The problems of district heating — network losses, tariffs, hot water, the energy efficiency of apartment blocks — are the problems of every family in Rîșcani. On the council, Renata will not talk about "infrastructure" in the abstract: she will talk about this main pipeline and that apartment block, because she knows them all.

As a woman chief engineer in a technical field dominated by men, she has had to prove her competence every day for 35 years. That professional rigour makes her a formidable opponent of improvisation and of decisions made "by ear".

Finally, she was born in Rîșcani, and her company heats the homes of her native town. She does not manage anonymous pipes — she looks after her neighbours' warmth. That bond makes her the natural representative of ordinary people on the council.