Video Arafat: Salina Praid is completely flooded with 4 million cubic meters of water, after the third massive infiltration in 2 years / Fechet: have been floods since 1970. Those guilty will be held accountable

“At this moment the Salina Praid is completely flooded, the amount of water being 4 million cubic meters,” the Raed Arafat Government, the head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU) announced on Wednesday. He said that this is the third massive infiltration, the first being on February 20, 2023. The Minister of the Environment, Mircea Fechet, stressed that in the salt mine were flooded since 1970 and that he hopes that the guilty will be quickly discovered by the checks of the prime minister's control body.

The head of the Department for Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat, announced on Wednesday in a government conference that Salina Praid is completely flooded at this time, and a team from the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism will come to Romania to work with experts in our country.

“At this moment, Salina Praid is completely flooded, the amount of water accumulated being about 4 million cubic meters. For the management of the emergency situation, at the level of IGSU, starting with May 6, forces from ISU Harghita, later also from ISU Brașov, Covasna, Mureș and Neamț, they were mobilized with the water, The thing could not be achieved.

According to the head of DSU, on June 1, an extraordinary meeting of the National Emergency Committee, held in the online system, took place, in order to approve an international assistance request through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

'The decision made by the Prime Minister was to request experts to come with our experts to strengthen the activity there and to be able to change opinions and to have more substantiated opinions and to be a consultation. Always when you have the second opinion, especially when they come well -trained experts and who have had similar experiences, we can have an added value. On June 2, through the civil protection mechanism, the request of a team of experts in the fields: rock mechanics, salt geotechnics, environmental impact, stability of geodetic salt, mechanical resistance, stability of foundation soil, stability of land, was submitted. (…) On June 3, there was a video conference attended by the eight experts in Spain, the Netherlands, the Germans and Hungary, within the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, and they will arrive in Romania today, ”said Arafat.

Fechet: Those guilty for what happened at Praid will be held accountable

In the same conference, the interim minister of the environment, Mircea Fechet, stressed that Secretary of State Arafat presented only part of the incidents that flooded the saline, countless floods being since 1970.

“The prime minister's control body requests documents from all institutions and I am convinced that very fast, because this matter must be quickly cut, the guilty for what happened in Praid will be held accountable. I have no doubt about this fact. I would only add that, in these days and nights, I read a lot of experts, State Arafat presented only part of the incidents that flooded the saline. And especially in relation to what happened starting May 6, when, if we give the time back and look at the weather reports, we can find that when the saline was flooded, for example, the flow rate of Corund was not very large, it had a flow of up to 6 mc/s, comparable to the flow, we said today.

According to the relevant minister, technical works were started in Salina Praid for the provisional resolution of the situation.

'I am very glad that things have actually started at Salina Praid and we will have that provisional work. It will be composed mainly of two tubes with a section of 2,000 mm, which will ensure a drain flow of up to 24 mc/s. I give all these technical details to make everyone understand that we are talking about a temporary work, a work that should help us to safely to the next, much more complicated and much more complex phases. At the same time, I want to communicate that I have extended the number of monitoring points in the context in which there is a significant environmental risk, respectively the contamination of chlorides downstream. We are currently monitoring 12 sections of the Corund Water Course, Târnava Mică and Târnava Mare Water Course, and we can already find out, because we have the results of today, still increases in these concentrations, and this can harm the environment ', the official said.

He added that the specialists from the Ministry of the Environment, together with those from the National Administration 'Romanian Waters' will begin, on Wednesday evening, the technical discussions with international experts.

'(…) We have about 40,000 people affected today, because the water is loaded with these chlorides, is salted on Romanian and cannot be consumed. At the same time, I want to assure you that all the experts of the Ministry of Environment, and we have on the spot more experts, both from the Romanian waters and from the General Directorate of Water in the Ministry, the discussions with the international experts, arrived within the civil protection mechanism, start from the evening. I would also add the fact that I have already sent in inter -ministerial approval a Government decision on the design, respectively carrying out feasibility studies, execution details, technical project for an upstream mitigation solution. At the same time, we intend to start very quickly the studies related to the deviation of the Corund Water Course on the old riverbed, which is not declared by experts last year, based on a technical expert that was carried out as a result of the flooding of the mine in 2024. It is a rather expensive solution, which implies, on the one hand, excavations in the mountain, the transport of thousands of cubic meters of rock, the move of lines from another tension or of roads. We do everything that is humanly possible to ensure that we protect the citizens of Praid commune ', explained Mircea Fechet.

The European Commission (EC) announced on Wednesday, in a press release that a team of eight European experts will be carried out for a week to help analyze the field situation at Salina Praid, after the Romanian authorities have activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, requesting specialized experts in the mechanics of the rock and salt mine.

The team will consist of two environmental specialists, four geologists and two civilian engineers from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.

Accompanied by a connection officer within the Coordination Center for Emergency Situations (ERCC), the team will also work together with national experts to develop a road sheet to restore the normal state and to evaluate the potential risks for the inhabited area above the mine.

On May 6, Salina Praid was closed due to the infiltration produced following abundant rains, and at present about 50,000 people who live downstream of Praid commune no longer benefit from drinking water, due to the very high concentrations of chloride from Corund stream and the Târnava Mică river, as a result of floods.