Prolonged drought wreaks havoc on Romania

The latest drought has prompted authorities in Romania to limit the consumption of drinking water in many towns and villages across the country

Ştefan Stoica, 13.08.2024, 14:00

With record high temperatures and scarce precipitations, the past two years have wreaked havoc on Romania presently witnessing a chronic drought with devastating effects on the economy and the everyday life of its citizens. Restrictions to drinking water consumption have been maintained in more than 4 hundred towns and villages across the country, the most affected regions being the eastern counties of Botoşani, Iaşi, Vrancea, Neamţ and Bacău.

But water supplies have also been affected in the southern counties of Giurgiu and Gorj and representatives of the Romanian Waters have again urged people to avoid wasting water supplies as reservoirs are presently filled only 78%. Water supplies have been seriously diminished in 120 towns and villages in Botoşani County as reservoirs here cannot accumulate enough water and residents have been advised to make their own minimum reserves during outages.

In villages around the area, which lack centralized water supplies, wells have completely dried up and people must travel 3-4 kilometers to get water. Against the scarce water supplies, experts urge people to use drinking water only for drinking and resort to alternatives for other activities whenever possible.

The prolonged drought this summer has wreaked havoc on crops as well. In July this year, field minister Florin Barbu notified EU Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski that large areas of Romania’s farmland had been affected by drought and he has recently called on the European Commission to compensate the Romanian farmers heavily affected by drought.

Large regions in Romania have been affected by drought and the heavy losses incurred by farmers are jeopardizing the economic viability of the Romanian farms as well as the country’s security interests, Bucharest has reported. ”The significant damage caused by unfavorable weather phenomena are calling for urgent compensations in the basis of an exceptional measure to contribute to solving the specific issues caused by these phenomena” says the letter Romania’s Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu sent to the European Commission. According to the ministry, the total estimated budget of maximum 75.2 million dollars for the crops sown in the autumn of 2023 must be urgently reimbursed to farmers. The low level of precipitations and the temperatures higher than usual this summer have wreaked havoc on the crops sown in spring as well, mainly corn and sunflower on a surface of roughly two million hectares. According to the Minister, Romania has incurred losses of 200 Euros per hectares.

(bill)