Romania struggles with drought

PM Nicolae Ciucă calls for quick intervention using domestic and European resources to protect Romanian agriculture and farmers from the effects of the drought.

Daniela Budu, 20.07.2022, 14:00

70% of Romania’s territory is affected by drought,
according to the authorities, who are calling on the population to make sensible
use of water resources so that they are sufficient for everyone. Meteorologists
are forecasting two more weeks of drought, with very little precipitation and
very high temperatures, which will imply measures to protect resources to
ensure drinking water in the long and medium run.

It is necessary to act quickly, using all domestic and
European resources available in order to protect Romanian agriculture and
farmers, said prime minister Nicolae Ciucă, who on Tuesday called the first
meeting of an inter-ministerial committee to manage to effects of climate
change on agriculture, including those caused by drought. The situation this
year is very complicated. We have done our best to increase the amount of
irrigation, but this was not possible in many areas, so many crops are
damaged, said agriculture minister Petre Daea. As a short and medium term
goal, the committee aims to implement the necessary measures to enhance the
industrialisation capacity of agricultural production and support farmers to
prepare and carry out the autumn work.
The prime minister said the authorities are preparing the autumn
negotiations to make it possible for the European funds available under the
country’s recovery and resilience plan to also be used to expand the irrigation
system.

Under the circumstances, the Romanian national water
management company warned that with the country’s water reserves dropping, the
population should use water resources more sensibly so that they are sufficient
for everyone. At the moment, the water service is restricted in over 200
localities due to the drought and very high consumption. The authorities said
measures would be taken to further restrict consumption, in order to protect
water resources and ensure drinking water in the medium and long run.

The situation is dramatic across most of the
continent, not least because of the wildfires caused by extreme temperatures.
Significant damage has been recorded in France, where tens of thousands of
hectares of land have been destroyed by fire, and tens of thousands of people
have been evacuated. North of Athens, the Greek authorities recorded a number
of wildfires within 24 hours. Spain and Portugal are also struggling with
wildfires, where hundreds of victims were reported because of the heat wave
sweeping across most of Europe. (CM)