We are starting the year strong.
The project „Siret River with clean water for nature and community” submitted by ACDB, was declared the winner in the grant program „With clean waters” (Cu Apele Curate). This program is implemented with the support of Lidl Romania and aims to support environmental projects that meet the general objective of reducing plastic pollution of the Danube’s waters and its direct and indirect tributaries.
The project will be implemented between March 2023 and October 2023 and we aim to reduce plastic pollution in the protected natural area Lower Siret Meadow.
The Siret is the most important tributary of the Danube, it has the largest hydrographic basin in the country and the most important flow. All these geographical superlatives make it, unfortunately, also the most important transporter of plastic in Romania, especially in Vrancea county, where there is no compliant landfill, and the recycling level is far below the national level. Under the given conditions, where does the waste from Vrancea end up? The locals tell you: to the gârla or to the ravine! In the end, many end up in the most important river in the area, in Siret.
Among these pieces of plastic, floating gently downstream, we meet rare and protected species. The Siret hosts an impressive biodiversity within 4 protected natural areas, which overlap the entire Siret sector in Vrancea County. This waste not only affects the community but also the wild species that use the habitats in the wetlands on the Siret River. Reptiles stuck in PETs, a jackal with its head stuck in a jerry can, a swan entangled in plastic threads – these are just some of the animals we have saved from imminent death caused by plastic in the river.
In order to reduce this problem, we will act in several directions: awareness of the negative impact of waste reaching nature in the communities along the banks of the Siret, between Trotuș and Putna, lobbying and activism towards local administrations in 7 territorial administrative units and direct actions for the sanitation of the banks of the Siret river.
