Energy Minister summoned to parliament for explanations regarding the drinking water crisis in Arges

On Monday, at the Chamber of Deputies, during the "Government Hour" debate, the Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, is expected to give explanations regarding the drinking water crisis in Arges County, which affects the municipality of Curtea de Arges and neighboring localities.

Recently, Bogdan Ivan declared that he would comply with USR's request, although the ministry he leads does not have direct responsibilities in the provision of drinking water.

However, he discussed with representatives of Hidroelectrica - administrators of the Vidraru reservoir - to establish the necessary measures to resolve the situation.

Bogdan Ivan: I requested very clear reports, which, in turn, I forwarded to the Romanian Government, in which I showed all the availability, from an administrative point of view, on the part of the ministry to support any administrative initiative at local level. What I can say very clearly is that all those steps, including the water discharge, were taken under control with approvals from the responsible institutions, from the Environmental Protection Agency, "Romanian Waters", all local entities, the County Committee for Emergency Situations and so on. We had several meetings on this topic, in the desire to clarify everything that is within our direct remit in order to support the administrative steps of the local public administration to resolve this problem.

Since November last year, about 40.000 inhabitants of Curtea de Arges, Valea Danului, Valea Iasului and Baiculesti have not had drinking water; the authorities explained that the problem is not biological, but one of impurity, which has increased significantly due to controlled discharges from Lake Vidraru, carried out for renovation works.

Translated by: Radu Matei