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Over 16,000 people evacuated from flooded areas
The flow of the Danube is expected to increase again by the end of the week. President Basescu visited Bistret yesterday for the second time.
published at 2006-05-02
The Danube continues to advance towards the villages in the South of the country. The number of refugees has exceeded 16,000.
Other people have left their houses after the level of the water has risen in two villages from the area Rast-Bistret, Dolj County. Actually, the specialists consider the idea to perform a controlled discharging there. Other two breaks appeared yesterday morning in the dike that protects the locality Macesu de Jos, Dolj County, after several tens of houses had been submerged on Sunday.
The waters of the Danube have overflown also at Carna. Over 60 houses are under the water, while the National Road 55A, that connects Calafat and Bechet, is unusable.
The authorities from Carna and Macesu de Jos began evacuating the locals already during the night. In less than 24 hours, the water rose over 40 cm.
Around 200 persons were evacuated from Carna in the night of Sunday through Monday. Nevertheless, 800 families still refuse to go to the camp of flood victims set up at Goicea. Several persons from Dolj County believed that the danger has passed, and they began to sow the land. Now, all their work has been destroyed by the water. The nightmare has not finished, because, although the Danube is falling, the water is digging a new bed through the villages, because of the broken dike from Bistret. The authorities are afraid that Carna and Macesu de Jos would remain isolated.
1,000 locals from Manastirea evacuated
The danger has not passed in Calarasi County as well. 1,000 persons were evacuated from Manastirea, a locality in Calarasi County. The locals from Manastirea began to consolidate the dike that crosses the locality, but it is very frail. Over 270 dwellings have been overflooded so far, but the Danube continues to grow. 600 persons were evacuated from Manastirea on Saturday. Those who could not find a refuge with families or friends were sheltered in a military camp set up near the village. The people, who went to the camp, will have the possibility to take a shower twice a week. Every Wednesday and Saturday, a special vehicle of the army will turn into a shower cabin. The National Road 31, between Manastirea and Spantov, is unusable.
President Basescu at Bistret
President Basescu is concerned about the situation of the people in the areas flooded by the Danube, and of the cattle in the disaster area as well. The head of state visited yesterday the commune of Bistret, Dolj County, for a second time. According to the Bistret deputy mayor, Dumitru Bratan, President Basecu urged that the cattle should receive more food. The deputy mayor also said that the president saw the homeless camps as a short-term solution and asked that the homeless were moved to military barracks where living accommodations are better. Basescu is also alleged to have said that the entire village of Rast would be relocated on the site of the tent camp. The locality will be rebuilt exactly as it used to be, so that the residents will have the same neighbours and the commune hall and the church are located as they were in the former village.
The minister of Administration and Interior, Vasile Blaga, also toured the villages hit by floods in the Bistret area. He has said that the authorities' main concern is that nobody loses their life and the homeless have a place where they can sleep.
The Danube threatens to come with new flash floods
The flow of the Danube will grow again by the end of the week. The river enters the country fed by the rains fallen in the last few days in Austria and Germany. Between May 6 and 8, meaning from Saturday to Monday, the flow is expected to reach 13,500 cu.m. per second, but however less than recorded two weeks ago when the Danube was coming to Romania with almost 16,000 cu.m. per second.
Rast and Spantov people vulnerable to diseases
The health of the flood victims from Rast and Spantov is in danger. Lice have appeared in the camp from the field, and there is also the risk for a hepatitis epidemic to burst out. For the flood victims from the camp from Spantov, Calarasi County, life is also difficult, because they have been living in the open air for over a week. The flood victims from Dolj County have fallen ill because of the poor conditions from the camp. The appearance of the diseases is favoured by the precarious hygiene.
In the camp there are two mobile showers, but the people do not use them for various reasons. Although they had the possibility to move into a military barrack at Bailesti, where the conditions are better, the people have turned down the offer. They say that they cannot leave their animals, which they cannot take with them. The Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu visited three days ago the camp from Rast and promised the flood victims to help them find drugs. He stressed that an urgent measure is to separate the people from the animals.
Aid for the flood victims
The Romanian Red Cross launched yesterday, through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, an international appeal for humanitarian aid to be granted over a period of three months to at least 13,000 flood victims, in the amount of EUR 1.5 M. The accounts for the floods are open with BRD, Piata Romana Agency: account in RON RO36 BRDE 410 SV 51618614100, and account in Euro RO71 BRDE 410 SV 51618884100. A press communiqué of the Embassy of Turkey in Bucharest reads that the Turkish Red Crescent sent two trucks with humanitarian aid in a total value of USD 56,000.
Water management strategy in 2009
Romania will have a national water management strategy only in 2009. The Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu acknowledged in a programme on Realitatea TV that our country does not have at this moment a concrete water management strategy. The Environment Minister stressed that the implementation and operation of such a management programme needs a duration of at least three years. The same said the General Director of the National Administration Apele Romane, Madalin Mihailovici.
by Simona Popescu
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