The Vidraru project, if it were not done now, would never be done, and starting with March 31, the refilling of Vidraru Lake could begin, declared on Monday in the plenary session of Parliament, at "Government Time", the Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan.
"This extremely important project from Vidraru, if it wasn't done now, would never have been done. I feel sincerely sorry for the drama those people are going through. I really regret it and unfortunately it is a failure of state institutions, not just of a state institution. But what is important is that since December we have had several meetings with all the factors involved, from local to central authorities, to unblock such a situation. The people from Hidroelectrica, at their own expense, came up with a solution in which they arranged several lakes (...) to decant as much as possible. But a 50-year-old treatment plant, which can process a maximum of 50 NTU - a unit of measurement for turbidity, while all the treatment plants, today, in the country can purify water that has up to 1,000 units, you can't make it functional overnight. The water company should have invested in that treatment plant since 2017 so that we wouldn't be in this situation," Ivan said.
The official added that, at present, the technical solution has been found through which the water filters will be renewed.
"What we have on the last hundred meters: a solution found with an important private company, worth two million euros, which can lead to the renewal of the filters and automatically solve those problems. Once you have entered the modernization cycle at Vidraru, there is no way to stop that water. They are working precisely to avoid the situation in which even more muddy water comes to the treatment plant. The specialists have found a solution to work with divers in extremely complicated and risky conditions for those people. They have assumed and have until March 31 to finish all that work so that, from March 31, when the warm season comes, the snow on the mountains melts and precipitation automatically comes, to begin refilling Lake Vidraru. At the moment, based on the forecasts we have, if we have precipitation similar to the last five years, the lake should be filled by the end of the year, and the intake that takes clean water from a higher level, which takes it to the treatment plant, should be able to deliver it. There are technical data and no matter how much political desire we have, from Parliament or the Government, you can't make water that comes to you under certain conditions, overnight, clean, and all these things can only be done with solutions," the minister argued.
According to the dignitary, Romania lacks almost 7,000 megawatts "which have been taken out of production, energy in the band, in the last 15 years, until 2023".
"We need to produce more energy because, five years ago, Romania and its leaders at the time made some wrong decisions when they decided to enter with the most aggressive decarbonization target for our country, through which we would close coal-fired power plants, through which we would close coal mines. At the moment, Romania lacks almost 7,000 megawatts, which have been taken out of production, energy in the band, in the last 15 years, until 2023, and in order to be able to compensate for this, we took all the money we had available for solar panels and put it into storage and by the end of the year we will make 2,000 megawatts on new storage capacities," mentioned Bogdan Ivan.
The Minister of Energy reiterated that, this year, the projects in Mintia, Iernut, as well as the CHPs in Arad and Constanta, will be put into operation.
"Mintia, Iernut, the CET in Arad and Constanta are coming into operation this year. I took on these projects, which were at an extremely complicated stage, and I want to make them functional, so that we have enough energy in Romania. Today, I hope that we at least learn a lesson, those of us in the governing body and with some of our partners, that the PSD is not to blame for everything. I understand this nonsense, I'm not even going to go into explaining very clear arguments to you again, because I don't hold these arguments for you. I say this with regret that many of you are educated people, young people, people who think they are well-intentioned, but you have entered this mess in which you are in government, but you behave as if you are also in opposition, in which you systematically attack the Social Democratic Party for things that have no connection with the specific area. If you are good at everything, from morning to night, from DSP to bacteria, to energy, come up with some solutions. I can't wait to have a serious debate with solutions, as many of you are in Parliament, and with specialists when we talk about energy," the head of Energy said.
The Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, participated in the "Government Hour" political debates in Parliament on Monday, at the request of the USR parliamentary group.
During the discussions, the presentation of the plan of concrete measures and actions that the relevant ministry, together with Hidroelectrica - responsible for the administration of the Vidraru hydropower development, took to prevent the emergence of a drinking water shortage crisis was requested.
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