“We are waiting for the rains, although fundamentally they are unlikely to change the overall situation much,” the director of Eco-TIRAS wrote on his Facebook page.
Perhaps some indirect influence on the process of regulating the Dniester’s water availability will be exerted by the public hearings of the parliamentary commission on ecology, scheduled for May 13 this year. Earlier, Ilya Trombitsky outlined a broad list of promising topics to be discussed at this event.
In particular, in the context of the impact of agriculture on the ecology of the Dniester, the expert suggests:
- Large-scale afforestation of the basin (creation of water protection forest belts on the banks) of the Dniester.
- A ban on plowing land directly at the water’s edge.
- Transition of basin farmers to drought-resistant crops and introduction of drip irrigation technologies.
- Demolition of illegal dams erected to create ponds for irrigation or fish farming purposes.
- Prohibition of the use of artesian water for irrigation. During periods of extreme dry spells (hydrological drought), impose temporary restrictions on the use of groundwater in order to preserve a strategic drinking water reserve. Revision of legislation regarding the use of mineralized water for irrigation.
It is worth mentioning that Moldovan agrarians will surely have objections to the last point. In particular, they will note that neighboring countries actively use water from the same underground aquifers. That is, they actively draw them out, while Moldova “argues about a strategic water reserve for future generations”.
