Dambovita Fresh Water 2025

The event is organized by the initiator partners of the “Dâmbovița Fresh Water” program

Călin Coțoiu, 29.07.2025, 14:00

In mid-March, on the occasion of the International Rivers Day, the spring intervention dedicated to the revitalization of the Dâmbovița River began, organized by the initiator partners of the “Dâmbovița Fresh Water” program. The event is part of the “Dâmbovița Fresh Water 2025” program, which aims to transform the river into an urban resource of ecological, cultural and social value, essential for the sustainable development of the city and for the well-being of citizens. And since the program is organized by the Ivan Patzaichin Association – Mila 23 and Nod Makerspace, Teodor Frolu, Vice President of the Ivan Patzaichin Association – Mila 23 and Tamina Lolev, President of Nod Makerspace, told us the story of this project.

Teodor Frolu, vice president of the Ivan Patzaichin Association – Mila 23, explained:

“The story began in 2015, when, at the National Library, a first intervention was made in which the riverbank, on a section of several hundred meters, was treated differently, with the creation of stairs to the water, with pontoons during the summer. All that first intervention was made by the Ivan Patzaichin Association, together with the City Hall of the Capital. It was a first sign of what the Dâmbovița River can become. After that, there were various events, meetings, conferences, we brought examples from other European capitals, and we started collaborating in the working group at the City Hall of the Capital, together with all the authorities that have a piece of Dâmbovița each.”

We learned from our interlocutor that, in fact, this is also one of the great challenges of revitalizing the Dâmbovița riverside area, the fact that the river has around 14 administrative entities that are responsible for a small part of the entire major infrastructure of Bucharest.

“We, together with Nod Makerspace, have initiated in the last 5 years, after the pandemic, Dâmbovița Delivery, an event that takes place every autumn during Sustainable Development Week, somewhere in the Mihai Bravu area, where the Nod Makerspace hub is. Our role with Dambovita Fresh Water is, this year, to bring Dâmbovița closer to the residents of the Capital. So we set out to have five pontoons that we will rehabilitate, on which we will have activities all summer, with boats, with space arrangements around these places, now abandoned or simply ignored by the city.”

And citizens have become increasingly close to these events, so that, if there were a few thousand visitors at the Dâmbovița Delivery event in 2022, last year the number of visitors exceeded 15-20,000 during the 2 days of the event, as Teodor Frolu told us.

Tamina Lolev, architect and president of the Nod Maker Space Association, added:

“We have been on the Dâmbovița riverbank for 10 years with Nod Makerspace, with this cultural and creative hub, and for 5 years we started doing activities on the waterfront and all kinds of projects. We fell in love with water, also inspired by Ivan Patzaichin and his team. And slowly, slowly, we realized that this great unused resource of the city actually has fantastic potential, and it is a matter of time and the alignment of the actors around Dâmbovița for this Dâmbovița to develop healthily in the future. When I say actors, I mean all parts of society, there are actually several institutions that care about the boulevard, the sidewalks, the water surface, the green spaces. We created this program, Dambovita Fresh Water for several objectives: so that the people and residents of Bucharest get closer to the river, start to have a positive perception of it this, because it actually contains life, even if it doesn’t seem like it. There are many types of vegetation that grow around the river, there are all kinds of fish, insects, animals, birds, so in reality it has life. And in the future we want this life to multiply and be increasingly rich, so that in 5-10 years we can consider that Dâmbovița Delivery becomes this green-blue corridor that also cools the city.”

We learned that 100 volunteers participated in the event in March this year, which is a lot for a greening action, proving the increasing involvement of people in such initiatives. As for the future plans, they are many: Tamina Lolev:

“So, on April 12, in the area called United Nations, at the unused concrete pier, we will place two floating pontoons and a waste barrier, and we will celebrate, within the framework of Open Streets, this access point to the water. Later, on June 6-8, in the Timpuri Noi area, we will hold the Dâmbovița Summer Delivery, meaning that we will also celebrate access to the water, the concrete pier at Timpuri Noi will be refurbished and, on land, the embankment will be pedestrianized, and we will have activities on water and on land, followed by the Dâmbovița Autumn Delivery on September 20-21, namely At the Opera House, a 2-day, weekend event, similar, with new access to the waters in the Opera area, with watercraft activities and artistic and educational activities on land.”

The Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association is named after a great Romanian athlete, a multiple Olympic medalist canoeist. The association has initiated a rowing boat festival and competitions on Romanian waterways, and has been involved in projects promoting natural and cultural attractions and local development, such as the one targeting Dâmboviţa, the river that runs through the Romanian capital.