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Red Code flood advisory for Ungheni - Danube Prut river stretch maintained
Hydrology experts maintain the Red Code flood advisory for the Ungheni - Danube sector of the Prut river, which crosses the counties of Iasi, Vaslui and Galati, until Friday at 4:00 p.m., informs the National Hydrology and Water Management Institute (INHGA); the advisory is actually an update of the hydrological warning issued on July 14, 2010.
INHGA also maintains the Code Orange flood advisory for the Prut river, along the sector stretching downstream Stanca - upstream Ungheni and running through the Botosani County (northeast), as well as the Code Yellow advisory for the Jijia river at Chiperesti (Iasi County - east).
According to INHGA, between July 15, 3:00 p.m. - July 16, 4.00 p.m. water levels on the aforementioned rivers will exceed the danger, flooding and alert levels respectively, because of progressing flash floods formed previously and potential considerable run-offs and streams that could produce local flooding. Hydrology experts warn that there might be an important grow in flow rates for some small rivers in the hilly and mountain areas and in Dobrogea (south-east).
Romania to have flood-prevention strategy by Aug.
Romania will have a strategy to prevent the floods in three weeks at the most, with the document currently being at the final phase, namely signing at the involved ministries, Minister of Environment and Forests Laszlo Borbely told a news conference on Thursday.Borbely spoke of the amounts assigned to flood prevention and stressed that several dikes had collapsed during the latest flooding because of the torrential rains, not because they were not solid.
'The weather phenomena in 2010 were unlike anything seen in the last years. Actually, there hasn't been a day since mid-June without special weather phenomena. I must stress that the authorities, together with the Romanian Waters Company and all the persons that got involved had tried to keep the rivers from overflowing their banks under extremely difficult conditions, particularly in the case of the (eastern) Prut and Siret rivers. Some dikes were burst because of the torrential rain. Let us be very clear about this - what happened in several eastern and central counties, including the loss of human lives, was because of the torrential rain, not because of the dikes or of the rivers. We had allotted additional amounts for 2010, 2011, 2012 - namely 436 million lei from the Environment Fund before the floods hit; of this, 130 million lei was assigned this year', the environment minister said.
He insisted Romania needs a range of strategic decisions in order to prevent the nationwide disasters seen in the latest period.'We decided to set up a Department in the ministry to have authority on water management and flood prevention', Borbely said, adding the establishment of the new structure had already been approved at the Government's meeting on Wednesday.
According to Environment Ministry data, quoted by Agerpres, the combined infrastructure managed by the Romanian Waters National Administration includes 6,194 kilometres of dikes, 5,776 km of river dams, 3,513 km of river bank defences and 308 reservoirs.Furthermore, the infrastructure managed by the National Land Reclamation Agency includes 2,270 km of dikes (of which 1,181 km on the Danube River and 1,089 km on the inland rivers) and 110 dams and reservoirs meant to prevent flash floods.