Drinking water supply in Prahova and Dâmbovița counties will only resume next week. More than 100,000 people are affected

The supply of drinking water to the over 107,000 people in Prahova and Dâmboviţa counties who have not received water since Friday evening due to problems at the Paltinu dam could resume next week. The President of the Prahova County Council announced on Monday that, although the supply of water from the reservoir will resume on Tuesday, it will not reach the final consumer “earlier than Monday” due to technical operations, informs News.ro.

“From tomorrow, I say, starting at 12 o'clock, the water supply will start again, but, and this is the most important thing, it will not reach the beneficiary before Monday. Why? Because the treatment plants must be primed, the installations must be filled with water, a technological process that takes several days. What do we want? We want the subsequent work that will be done on those bottom empties of the dam to be done by providing alternative solutions so that they do not we end up in a situation like this again”, declared, on Monday, the president of CJ Prahova, Virgiliu Nanu.

Asked if it is possible for the situation to repeat itself, Chief CJ Prahova replied: “One hundred percent”.

“The moment we start doing such work, you cannot start and not have that clean water basin, not have the adduction from that clean water basin. I mean, we should first intervene quickly on these solutions and then intervene on the dam. From my point of view, an urgent intervention plan and finding alternative solutions must be made, otherwise we will end up in the same situation. So let this be clear to everyone. If we do not come up with an alternative solution we will still get here. We are now doing nothing but returning to the initial state, but the problem of the dam has not been solved”, said Virgiliu Nanu.

Water distributed by the fire department

For his part, the Prefect of Prahova County, Daniel Nicodim, said on Monday that a new meeting of the Committee for Emergency Situations will be needed, in which the Government will be requested to ensure drinking water for the affected population until next week, considering that it was approved to remove the necessary amount of water from the state reserve until Wednesday.

“I don't want to comment on solutions, on technical solutions, because technical solutions must be decided by the specialists from Romanian Waters, the same specialists who made the decision today that the water will be turned on on Monday, they were also in my office, in a meeting on Saturday, and then they told me that they will turn on the water 48-24 hours, 72 hours, after the orange code stops. That's why we made this strategy, to ask for water from the Government until Wednesday. Now I see that another 72 hours are going by, plus another 50, I don't want to pronounce on these things anymore. I ask the Ministry of the Environment to gather its specialists and when they send them to find a solution, to stop arguing with each other,” declared the Prefect of Prahova County.

On Monday, firefighters continue to distribute household water and drinking water containers to the population of Prahova and Dâmboviţa counties, affected by the lack of water as a result of the significant drop in the water level in the Paltinu dam, informs the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU).

These support actions are operationalized as a result of the Decision of the National Committee for Emergency Situations no. 32 of November 30, 2025, by which urgent measures intended for the communities affected by the suspension of water supply as well as the decisions of the County Committees for Emergency Situations were approved. The measures remain dynamic, and the distribution of water continues depending on the needs identified at the local level, the cited source informs.