A number of media NGOs addressed an open letter to Prime Minister Pavel Filip whereby they express their concern about the intention to merge the Ministry of Environment with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction within the central public administration reform. According to the signatories of the letter, this fact will destroy the few existing natural resources that are important for the life and health of the Moldovan citizens.
In a news conference at IPN, chairman of the Ecologist Movement of Moldova Alecu Renita said civil society supports the reforms that are to bring changes to the better in the medium and long term, not yet mechanical reforms. The ecologists are against the merger of institutions and areas that are fully different and incompatible by their essence. As a result of the initiated reform, the Ministry of Environment, which is an institution with an inspection mission, is to be merged with an institution that actually exploits the resources that are protected by the Ministry of Environment.
Iuliana Cantaragiu, projects coordinator at the National Environmental Center, said there have always been tensions between the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, caused mainly by the pressure exerted by the agricultural sector on the environment owing to the wish to exploit the natural resources in the way that the ecologists oppose. The insistence of some farmers to use underground water for irrigation and to treat soil with chemical substances in excess is a relevant example.
National Environmental Center president Ina Coseru said the proposed merger is impossible. There are multiple problems in the environmental sector and these will worsen if there is no body that will be directly responsible for this area. Among the environmental problems are the pollution of water, small wooded areas and use of chemicals. By the merger, they aim to open gates for using natural resources in the way that the Ministry of Environment opposed.
The representatives of the media NGOs also said that to make progress and do the long-expected reform in the given sector, which has been discussed for many years, the Ministry of Environment should be a solid institution headed by a minister who pleads for improving the environmental factors.
Among the signatures of the open letter to the Premier are: the Ecologist Movement of Moldova, the National Environmental Center, EcoContact, the Association of Environment and Ecological Tourism Journalists, the Association for Tourism Development of Moldova, the Regional Development Agency “Habitat”, the Moldova Environmental Center, AO “Media Grup Meridian”, AO FDDM WiSDOM, the Women’s Association for Environment and Rural Development, AO „Concordia” and others.
