Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on Monday, during a working meeting at the Victoria Palace, ordered the intensification of on-site inspections of operators extracting mineral aggregates from riverbeds and tightening legislation in order to eliminate abuses, introduce strict verification mechanisms and protect natural resources.
According to a Government press release, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests has already exponentially increased inspections in this field and will launch new thematic checks targeting ballast pits.
'In a working meeting held today (Monday - ed. note) at the Victoria Palace, the Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Environment, the National Administration Romanian Waters', the National Environmental Guard and the National Agency for Regulation in Mining, Petroleum and Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide to work, under the coordination of the Prime Minister's Chancellery, on amending the legislation, based on an accelerated timetable,' the press release reads.
This is a sector in which the Ministry of Environment already has consolidated proposals following reports published this year, the source highlights.
'The coordinates set by Prime Minister Bolojan envisage introducing a limit on the duration of licences for the development of fish farms and leisure lakes, as well as limits on water surface area and the depth at which extraction is carried out. The plan also includes establishing strict mechanisms to verify compliance with contractual obligations undertaken by economic operators when obtaining approvals and/or licences, including the enforcement of financial guarantees intended for environmental restoration where operators have failed to meet their obligations,' the press release reads.
The normative act that will include these legislative amendments will be approved by the Government as a priority, according to the source.
'The legislation will also be supplemented by control measures applied through the Ballast Pit Radar platform, which will be launched by the Ministry of Environment, alongside the ballast pit inspector, a website launched a week ago that has already recorded over 30,000 visits,' according to the release.
At the same time, Prime Minister Bolojan asked state institutions to cooperate and provide the necessary data to intensify on field inspections, given that, according to a preliminary analysis carried out by Romanian Waters, in the past 10 years more than 1,200 water management permits have been issued for projects declared as fish ponds, but fewer than 10% of these have actually been completed as such.
'The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests has analysed the situation of mineral aggregate extraction carried out under the pretext of developing fish ponds for the period 2015-2025. According to the data, more than 1,200 water management permits were issued during 2015-2025 for projects declared as fish ponds, but fewer than 10% of these were actually completed as such,' the Government release points out.
The ministry's analysis also shows that, through permits issued for fish ponds, more than 230 million cubic metres of mineral aggregates were extracted during the mentioned period, with the phenomenon concentrated in several river basins, and the data indicate a correlation between the location of these operations and major infrastructure construction sites.
The National Agency for Regulation in Mining, Petroleum and Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide will contribute information and expertise to the amendment of the legislation, in order to protect natural resources and ensure compliance with the conditions for the rigorous issuance of exploitation licences and permits, the cited source highlights.
The working meeting at the Victoria Palace, alongside Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, was attended by Environment Minister Diana Buzoianu, the head of the Prime Minister's Chancellery Mihai Jurca, and representatives of the National Administration Romanian Waters', the National Environmental Guard and the National Agency for Regulation in Mining, Petroleum and Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide.
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