Ecologists consider that the Action Plan for implementing the National Development Strategy (NDS) does not sufficiently focus on environment related issues, Info-Prim Neo reports. At a roundtable meeting on January 29, representatives of environmental NGOs made a strategic environmental assessment of the Action Plan for implementing the NDP for 2008-2011. Vladimir Garaba, chairman of the Chisinau branch of the Ecological Movement of Moldova, said that such measures as the draining of land, cleaning of drainage channels, clearing of multiannual plantations with the aim of including the land in the agricultural circuit should be excluded from the Action Plan because they are anti-ecological. Referring to the authorities’ intention to create the Free Economic Zone “Marculesti Airport”, Vladimir Garaba said that the underground area in this zone is polluted with oil substances. Large investments will be needed to depollute this zone and this process will take about 20 years, the cited source said. University lecturer Valentin Bobeica said that the authorities should examine the areas from ecological viewpoint before repairing the roads included in the Plan. He expressed concern that the cleaning and deepening of the bottom of Prut river for the purpose of transforming it into a fluvial route will serve as a pretext for extracting sand and gravel and this can lead to the modification of the river’s configuration and to the destruction of the hydrosphere. At the same time, the environmental NGOs said they are concerned about the design and construction of the railway line Giurgiulesti-Cahul. The ecologists consider that the building and utilisation of the given line will increase the flooding risks in some parts of the waterside of the Prut, the risk of soil and bedrock erosion and will have a negative impact on the aquatic biodiversity. However, Natalia Catrinescu, head of the Economy Ministry’s General Division of Macroeconomic Policies and Development Programmes, said that the Plan was worked out in compliance with all the ecological norms, the ecology related issued being thoroughly examined as part of all the planned activities. The National Development Strategy for 2008-2011 was adopted by the Parliament in December 2007 and promulgated by the president on January 18, 2008.