Ecological disaster on Lake Valea Morilor

About 10 tones of fish and crustaceans have died this weekend in Lake Valea Morilor of the capital, due to lack of oxygen. This is the provisional result of the investigation regarding the ecological catastrophe occurred at one of the most beautiful ponds of Chisinau, on Saturday night, before the rain, when the atmospheric pressure suddenly decreased. According to the Exceptional Situations Department, on July 28, there were discovered huge quantities of dead fish and crawfish on the surface of the lake. The next day, the representatives of the Municipal Preventive Medicine Center took samples of water for lab analysis. The results showed that the level of oxygen in the water was extremely low, and the quantity of consumed oxygen is relatively big. The head of the Municipal Preventive Medicine Center, Iurie Panzaru, announced the mayoralty’s working meeting on Monday that under the pressure of sunrays and increased temperatures the algae and other organic matter started to decompose, rapidly diminishing the oxygen level. The deputy head of the Green Spaces Management Association, Eliferie Haruta, said at the same meeting 5 million lei are needed in order to clean the lake. The chairman of the Territorial Chisinau Organization of the Ecologist Movement of Moldova, Vladimir Garaba, informed that at the moment Valea Morilor pond is almost a dead one due to its grave ecologic condition resulting from the lack of responsibility of the local public authorities. The mud level of the lake’s bottom, un-cleaned for 20 years, got to 1,5 and even 5 meters high, in some places, and the level of oxygen in the water is of about 1,5-3 milligrams per liter, while the norms require 6 milligrams per liter. According to him, the catastrophe was imminent. The costs of the works, Garaba noted, could be lower if CMC would have not allocated for building houses the plot meant to stock the mud of the lake on, as the blueprints of the pond require. Thus, Garaba mentions, at the moment, the zone between the pond and Vasile Lupu Street is full of houses and building sites, while the mud is transported at a significant distance from the city, this leading to huge expenses. „We urgently need a political decision in order to stop building near the pond, otherwise Valea Morilor will become a dead zone,” Vladimir Garaba highlighted. The interim mayor of the capital Vasile Ursu assessed this case, during the working meeting of the mayoralty, as „a natural phenomenon”. In this context, he reminded about the Government disposal to draft fitting measures of the residential district Valea Morilor, including lake’s cleaning. Two years ago a similar ecological disaster occurred on a pond on Albisoara Street, when 5 tones of fish have died.