Dniester Pollution: A Mirror of PAS Rule

The authorities are handling the management of yet another crisis ineptly, this time one linked to the pollution of the Dniester with petroleum products

Semyon ALBU, RTA: The current regime cannot go even a single week without a loud scandal that once again exposes its administrative impotence. At times one can almost feel a slight tinge of pity for the officials and party functionaries who are constantly forced to search for and invent ever new excuses for their failures. The International Monetary Fund cancelled a loan? Well, the country no longer needs the Fund’s money anyway, only its advice, argues Radu Marian. Sky-high heating bills and dreadful roads? That is the fault of the Soviet Union, which supposedly built everything so poorly, claims with a straight face Minister Vladimir Bolea. A fuel crisis? Naturally, it must be due to the aggression of Iran, insists the collective mind of Party of Action and Solidarity. In short, the authorities have long mastered the skill of deflecting any criticism directed at them, shifting responsibility for every problem onto anyone but themselves. The only catch is that this single highly developed talent of the “yellow pack” does nothing to make life easier for the population but quite the opposite. Moreover, the longer their rule continues, the more sectors of public life appear to be sliding into a pre-crisis, near-collapse state. Unsurprisingly, several strong contenders have now entered the race for the title of “crisis of the week”. The leader’s jersey is still held by the fuel situation: on the one hand, prices are rising day by day, while on the other, there remains a very real risk that fuel could soon become a scarce commodity. Yet another problem is already closing in – the issue of pollution in the Dniester River. The way this situation is being handled serves as a perfect mirror of the regime’s entire governance model: inefficient, slow to react, accustomed to misleading the public, and focused on public relations rather than on the genuine welfare of citizens. A brief chronology. Several days ago, reports emerged that in the north of the country a slick of roughly one and a half tons of petroleum products had been spotted in the Dniester River drifting downstream. Its origin was not disclosed. Soon afterward the authorities finally deigned to comment and their statements were, quite unexpectedly, imbued with optimism. On Tuesday, Environment Minister Gheorghe Hajder reported that a filter would be installed “within the next few hours”. He also assured the public that the spread of the oil was being contained by the dam of the Dubasari Hydroelectric Power Station, in other words, nothing to watch. The following day, the official even travelled to the site personally to assess the situation. Afterward, he stated that traces of petroleum products in the river were “insignificant”, “almost undetectable”, and posed no danger to the population. In reality, however, the minister’s reassuring rhetoric sat rather poorly with the actual situation. First, the characteristic oil “films” on the water were clearly visible at the time even to the naked eye. Second, in northern cities, for example in Balti, water supplies began to be shut off for sanitary safety reasons. Third, the Ministry of Health of Moldova instructed its subordinate institutions to build up reserves of drinking and technical water, check the operability of alternative water supply systems, and assess the condition of their own water sources. Taken together, this hardly suggested that “everything was fine”. Meanwhile, residents began stockpiling water on their own, in some places even triggering shortages of bottled water. Against this backdrop, the opposition launched a barrage of criticism at the country’s leadership. Particularly vocal has been the mayor of Chisinau, Ion Ceban, who accused officials of ignoring the problem, reacting too slowly, withholding important information from the public, and even attempting to quietly prepare for water shutdowns in settlements across the country. In parliament, opposition lawmakers demanded that the relevant minister be summoned for questioning, but were predictably rebuffed. Indeed, what’s the big deal? If the common folk have to sit without water for a while, well, what of it? Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu even tried to make what he apparently thought was a witty remark (in fact, not quite), suggesting that people imagine what would happen if wine suddenly started running out instead. By Thursday evening, however, the situation had become far less amusing. Even Minister Gheorghe Hajder suddenly acknowledged that the “oil substance” was continuing to enter the Dniester River from Ukraine, that water quality near Naslavcea had fallen to a critical hazard level, and that local authorities had therefore been advised to completely halt water supply, while residents were urged not to use the water even for household purposes. Moreover, the official went on to admit that the measures being taken to localize the contamination might, imagine that, “prove insufficient” to contain the incoming toxic substances. In other words, the shift in the authorities’ position from “we fully control the situation and there are no threats” to “everything is bad and our measures are not working” took literally a single day. A remarkable example of outstanding analysis and forecasting. If one looks deeper, however, the actions of PAS raise even more questions. It later emerged that the leakage of petroleum products into the Dniester River had actually occurred as early as 7 March (!), following a strike on the Dnister Hydroelectric Power Station in Ukraine. This means that the relevant information should have been available to the country’s authorities already last week. Yet, for reasons that remain unclear, they seemingly chose to do nothing. Only several days after the spill, reportedly involving rocket fuel, according to Ukrainian media, did officials begin taking measures such as collecting water samples and installing containment barriers. On top of that, even fully aware of the situation’s gravity – as the very same circulars in the health sector indicate – officials continued feeding the public a steady diet of assurances that everything was under control, while simultaneously blaming the opposition for “provoking panic”. In the end, PAS has only now “laid its cards on the table”, once it became simply impossible to keep the scale of the problem under wraps. Such is the kind of attentive and competent leadership we have – the bright future awaits us.