The Minister of the Environment claims that the situation in Praid remains critical. “The erosions in the ceiling of the old mine have expanded”
Mircea Fechet, the Minister of the Environment, Water and Forests states on Friday evening, after the work visit to Praid, that the situation in the area remains critical.
Working visit to Praid Photo: Mircea Fechet
He says, in a Facebook post, that the efforts of specialists and intervention teams to save the mine and to put the community safe.
“The situation remains critical, because the erosions in the ceiling of the old mine have expanded, in the last days, not only horizontally, but especially in depth. Together with Deputy Prime Minister Tánczos Barna, Minister of Economy, Bogdan Ivan, and the head of the Emergency Department, Raed Arafat, Corund.“, said the minister.
He states that the rapid identification of a financing source is intended to desalize the Târnava Mică river, so that the drinking water supply for the 40,000 people from the localities where the alert status was declared, the tap water being now polluted and not recommended.
Mircea Fechet mentioned that the National Administration “Romanian Waters” allocated, on Friday morning, 3.1 million lei for the start of the feasibility study for the accumulations that will mitigate, in the future, the risk of floods on the Corund stream.
The Minister of the Environment also provided details about the works for the deviation of the Corund stream.
“The builder contracted by Salrom began to dig a safety river for water capture, and yesterday received the transport of corrugated pipe (12 m) that will be used for the temporary work, with two tubes (2,000 mm section), which will ensure a drain flow of up to 24 mc/s“he said.
According to the minister, the debit of the Corund stream is decreasing, and the specialists from the Mureş Water Basin Administration have expanded the monitoring on 15 control sections, on the water courses affected by the recent pollution (eight points on the Târnava Mică river, two points on the Corund stream, on the River, on the River. Nădlac).
“Next, national and European civil protection experts analyze technical solutions to ensure the entire structure affected by floods and, at the same time, for to evacuate – under safe conditions – millions of cubic meters of salt water in the underground. Engineers, geologists and specialists in the environment, they all work the counter -time so that the intervention is not only fast and efficient, but also sustainable. We are not just talking about saving a historical mine, but about protecting an entire community, including natural heritage here“, said Fechet.
The Minister of the Environment added that the evaluation regarding the compensations needed for the losses suffered by the local economic operators will be started.
Bogdan Ivan: “The interest is to open Salina Praid in safe conditions”
Also, the Minister of Economy, Bogdan Ivan, says that the international experts who came to Salina Praid collected a first set of data, to be analyzed. Next week the first decisions will be taken to stabilize the situation so that the mine can be saved.
“The interest is to open Salina Praid safely for the people there and for tourists and to ensure that this very important attraction remains an attraction on the Romanian tourism map. In parallel, we have this state aid scheme with 300 million lei, through which, on the one hand, we strengthen the mine in the next stage, and all the companies, the 200 entrepreneurs from Praid who suffer from the closure of the mine, will receive compensation up to 300,000 euros, depending on the turnover”, Bogdan Ivan said at Digi24.
