A number of environmental nongovernmental organizations made a call to the Government of the Republic of Moldova not to sign the agreement on the functioning of the Novodnestrovsk energy complex that envisions the construction by Ukraine of new hydropower plans on the Nistru as long as there is no study of the impact on the environment.
The signatories call on the Government to send an official letter to Kiev and ask to fulfil the commitments assumed through the Espoo Convention that provides that any activity or major change in activity that is the object of the decision of a competent authority in accordance with an applicable national procedure should be subject to an environmental impact assessment in transfrontier context.
In a news conference at IPN, the environmental organizations warned that Ukraine’s project to extend the hydropower system endangers national security as 80% of the drinking water in Moldova is ensured by the Nistru and, in this case, about two million people in Moldova risk remaining without drinking water in several years.
Iuliana Cantaragiu, expert of the public association “National Environmental Center”, said the call is made because Ukraine, through its embassy in Chisinau, announced its intention to extend the energy complex and the project will be implemented with financial support from China. The extension of the hydropower system of 2002-2015 led to hydrological droughts on the Nistru, while the level of water in the river has decreased under the minimum pumping level.
Alecu Reniță, president of the Ecologist Movement of Moldova, said this project will lead to the transformation of the Nistru into marshland and will affect over 8 million inhabitants from both of the states – about 6 million Ukrainians and 2 million Moldova who risk remaining without drinking water. The authorities should realize the dangers to the national security as there is no other source of drinking water in the region except for the Nistru.
According to Alecu Reniță, this project is an aberrant one as it envisions the functioning of eight electricity generation installations, but this is twice more than the capacity of the Nistru. There are now three such installations that use practically all the water of the Nistru. Only about 130 cubic meter of water reach Moldova, at a time when the necessary volume is of 250-300 cubic meters per second. The Ukrainian side, to ensure water for the other five systems that are to be put into operation, is to build another six accumulation barrages upstream the hydropower plant. If so, in several years the Nistru can become a swamp.
Energy expert Sergiu Ungureanu said from financial viewpoint the given project is not viable as the costs for building and maintaining the hydropower plants are much higher than of other energy generation methods, such as solar panels and Aeolian devices.
