The ECO-TIRAS International Association of River Keepers is taking part in the project  “Protecting streams for a clean Black Sea by reducing sediment and litter pollution with joint innovative monitoring and control tools and nature-based practices”.  In a news conference at IPN, the Association’s president Ilia Trombitski said that the Black Sea is regrettably one of the most polluted seas owing to the plastic that gets into it and also the humus appearing as a result of soil erosion.

The project involves five countries, namely Greece, Romania, Armenia, Turkey and the Republic of Moldova, in the framework of a regional program. The project started on July 20, 2020 and will last for 24 months. It is financed based on a program whose first phase was implemented in 2007-2013. Its goal is to ensure the sustainable management of soil by the adoption of common methods and practices by the neighboring countries.

All those involved will get acquainted between them: NGOs, management institutions, ministries, universities, etc.

Ilia Trombitski noted that the largest rivers, including the Nistru, go northwest the Black Sea and all these rivers bring pollutants with them. Through the branches of the Nistru - Răut, Bîc and Botna - about 4,500 tonnes of azote get into the Nistru annually. A part of these pollutants enter the rivers as a result of improper processing or of soil erosion.

The processing industry is a source of pollution. Ilia Trombitski said there are not many plants with treatment systems in Moldova. In Cricova, there is no biological cleaning and the waste is discharged into the Ichel and then into the Nistru. The villages and towns also do not have efficient treatment systems owing to the lack of funds. If funds are not allocated from the budget for solving the problem of environmental pollution, the expected results will be on paper only.

The project will include a summer school for young people from both banks of the Nistru and an expedition on the Nistru for the young people to better understand how to act. Project manager Ecaterina Kuharuk said she would like this initiative to be implemented. She called on the authorities to pay special attention to ecological education.

Founded 21 years ago, the ECO-TIRAS International Association of River Keepers brings together over 50 NGOs of Moldova and Ukraine that center on ecology and, more or less, on the problems of the Nistru.