CASE STUDY

The disastrous state of Romania's waters

The authorities' reactions to the fight against pollution

This is how Romania looks, a member of the European Union, a country that has assumed
that by the end of last year all localities with more than 2,000 inhabitants will be sewerage. So-called
water treatment is often a systematic pollution of rivers and lakes.

If in urban areas the coverage rate of cities with sewerage networks is 87%, in rural areas
only 8% of the inhabited areas in the villages and communes benefit from a sewerage network. Even
a tenth has not been covered by investments, given that people in the villages take their washing
machine or dishwasher, but they make pensions and modern production facilities near the water.

The authorities give green light to the construction, then let the citizens fight among
themselves, amid dubious spills. The response of the Romanian Waters and the Environmental Guard
is tardy, inefficient or non-existent. Polluting discharges are duplicated by the burden of
responsibility between authorities.

There are undersized purification stations, but they work out with regular tips, though, to
clean up, rather ... pollute. Poor cleaning is recognized at the highest level.Ioan Deneş, Minister of
Waters: "We will give them fines". And yet Romania has for many years systematic discharges of
manure, directly into nature.

Q1: What do you consider to be the most effective solution to stop pollution?

Q2: Do you think that the political involvement has any kind of impacts over the pollution situation in
Romania?