ENVIRONMENT-ROMANIA: Romanian Environment Record Spreads Peril

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marian Chiriac

BUCHAREST, Feb 27 2001 (IPS) - In the doctor’s surgery in Craiova, the waiting room is packed with adults and children. The most common complaint is vomiting. Dr Ana Roman lists also respiratory problems and illnesses of the digestive system as the most frequent cause.

Some 20 Romanians, suffering from stomach pains, were taken to hospital recently after eating fish from a river polluted with ammonia.

“There are also chronic stomach aches, anaemia and other diverse illnesses of this kind,” says Dr. Roman. She doesn’t blame ammonia directly, but says that all the pollution weakens the immune system, especially in children, and leaves them vulnerable to other illnesses.

Faulty equipment at the Doljchim chemical plant in Craiova, around 300 kilometers southwest of Bucharest, spilled an unspecified amount of ammonia into the Jiu river last week, killing fish and posing a health hazard in the area.

Officials have seized hundreds of kilograms of dead fish from villages along the river and from Craiova’s markets. Despite warnings against eating fish from the river, locals from this impoverished region are apparently ignoring the advice.

“We have been aware that we can get ill, but the fish is the only free food we have,” says Ion Mateescu, 45.

The average monthly salary in Romania is only around 100 US dollars, and the region where the spill occurred is one of the poorest. Unemployment is nearly double the national average of 11 percent.

It is not the first time that Romania has been blamed for poisoning the rivers. Last month, over 100 people, including 78 children, were admitted to hospital after eating fish that had died of cyanide poisoning in the Siret river, in northeastern Romania.

Almost one year ago, a cyanide spill from a gold mine near Baia Mare in northwestern Romania discharged 120 tonnes of cyanide contaminating rivers from neighboring Hungary and Yugoslavia. The incident, which killed thousands of tonnes fish, and had a catastrophic effect on wildlife and the ecosystem, has been described as Europe’s worst river pollution disaster in a decade.

A European Union report on the accident, published at the end of last year, blamed design faults at of the mine alongside other factors.

These spills highlighted, mainly, the need to improve Romania’s management practices. The country is a study in environmental contrast: at once, Romania is home to some of the most spectacular, unspoiled beauty in Eastern Europe, while also suffering from some of the region’s worst environmental degradation.

Under the pre-1989 communist regime massive industrialisation and urbanisation totally ignored ecological factors.

“Correcting these crimes against the environment needs serious financial effort,” says Victor Capra, environment consultant at the local organisation “Protejati Natura” (Protect the Nature).

Mainly as a result of a lack of resources, Romania continues to be plagued by industrial air pollution, as well as water pollution by industrial and municipal wastewater discharges, agricultural runoff, and insufficient treatment of toxic pollutants discharged by industry into municipal sewers.

In recent years, Romania has voiced a stronger commitment to protect its environment, but the country’s ability to follow through is questionable.

The Romanian authorities have identified some 40 mines and factories which pose a serious threat to the environment and have appealed for international help to install safer technology.

“While Romania’s environmental legislation now complies over 90 percent with the European Union, it lacks the analytical capacity to develop and implement policy and strategy for sustainable environmental management,” says Victor Capra.

In March last year, Romania started EU membership talks, and was told by Brussels to step up efforts to solve its serious environmental problems.

The new government of reformed communists, installed after last November general elections, is willing to share in the financial burden of EU integration, which is estimated at up to 26 billion Euro for the environment sector alone.

“There’s much work to do, but we are headed in the right direction and the European Union appreciates this,” says Environment Minister Aurel Ilie.

“Environmental protection represents a priority of the government strategy, a defining element for securing a lasting socio-economic development of the country and for increasing the quality of life, for the future generations as well,” Ilie added.

Romanian officials put international funding for environment projects at 163.3 million Euro last year, up from only 27.4 million in 1999. They expect some 200 million Euro in foreign financing this year.

ENVIRONMENT-ROMANIA: Romanian Environment Record Spreads Peril

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marian Chiriac

BUCHAREST, Feb 27 2001 (IPS) - In the doctor’s surgery in Craiova, the waiting room is packed with adults and children. The most common complaint is vomiting. Dr Ana Roman lists also respiratory problems and illnesses of the digestive system as the most frequent cause.
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