The Gravel Pits Radar app, which will also include effective control mechanisms, could be launched by mid-year, Minister of Environment, Waters and Forestry Diana Buzoianu announced on Friday at a press conference.
"We are in fairly advanced discussions and, if I'm not mistaken, the public specifications have already been submitted to add several functions to the Gravel Pits Radar. The previous management created a radar system from which many control criteria had been removed. It was a nice registry listing all gravel pits in Romania, but along the way it had lost all its teeth and claws, so to speak. It no longer included control tools, it no longer compared approved extraction volumes with what was actually removed and put up for sale. Practically, it no longer served as an effective verification mechanism. We had to add functions, because launching a pretty electronic registry without real control behind it is pointless. I want to launch a Gravel Pits Radar that actually has enforcement capacity. I hope we can launch it by mid-year. With these additional control measures, it will have to be operational," Buzoianu said.
Regarding classic gravel pits nationwide, the minister stressed that many operate without permit or with expired permits.
"In the case of classic gravel pits, we already know there is widespread non-compliance. Many operate without permits, others have outdated permits. In 2025, I requested an analysis of inspections carried out by the Romanian Waters Administration, and it showed that both sanctions and the number of controls had decreased. Inspectors were conducting only a few dozen checks per month nationwide. In November, we set performance criteria and made it clear that real inspections must be carried out, not one or two per month, but at least 10 - 15. As a result, in November alone they carried out around 750 inspections, more than in the first seven months of the year. Once we stop the practice of indefinitely extending permits, the documents currently in force will no longer be extendable beyond the maximum legal period," the minister said.
The "Romanian Waters" National Administration (ANAR) announced in mid-August last year that the development of the Gravel Pits Radar application was progressing according to schedule, and that a detailed commissioning calendar with firm deadlines would be set after completion of the pilot stage, planned to run until September 5, 2025.
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