Recovered by the floods, wildlife returns to Romania's Danube Delta. August 2, 2024

While many welcome the return of wetland wildlife to the delta, local authorities are preparing for battle with farmers who want the delta drained again.

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Recovered by the floods, wildlife returns to Romania's Danube Delta

Ani SANDU

Tour guide Eugen Grigorov steered his boat past half-submerged harvesters and last year's flooded crops in a part of Romania's Danube Delta reclaimed by the great river.

After a dyke broke last summer near his village of Mahmudia, areas of the delta that were once drained to create farmland were submerged again, making the second-largest lake in the region and a haven for the region's damaged biodiversity.

"Isn't it beautiful now? Less pollution than with tractors and herbicides,” said the 51-year-old, amazed by the hundreds of wild pelicans, ducks, and seagulls that flock to the lake.

However, while many rejoice at the return of the delta's wildlife, the local authorities are gearing up for battle with farmers who want the lake drained again.

- 'Let the lake remain' - You remember how the delta was built.

Grigorov remembers how the delta paved the way for plantations in the 1980s when communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had the reed islands burned and the swamps drained to turn them into farmland.

Since the floods, the area has gone back to the way it was 40 years ago, Mahmudia's mayor Ion Serpescu told AFP, adding that the town was “happy” after the dyke broke.

Serpescu singled out the fishermen and tourists who visit his lakeside village, saying that “more than 15 guest houses have been built in two years” to accommodate them.

Estimating the cost of rebuilding the dyke at 20 to 30 million euros ($22 to 32 million), the 67-year-old believes there is little point in draining the lake again.

“Let the lake remain as it is,” he said.

Many of Mahmudia's 2,000 residents hope the Romanian government will agree after a commission of experts issued an opinion in favor of the delta's ecological restoration.

And during a visit in June, Romania's Environment Minister Mircea Fechet said that nature was “already repairing” the damage and that “the delta has done nothing but reclaim its land”.

But others weren't so keen on the idea, and businessman Emanuel Dobronauteanu sued the local authorities for damages after losing 730 hectares (1,804 acres) of wheat, corn, sunflower, and alfalfa in the floods.

Demanding “fair compensation”, the 58-year-old said the estimated two million lei (US$435,000) in damages caused by the floods was too low.

But even he said he wasn't opposed to the lake's return, telling AFP that he would be “pleased” to “go fishing there” if he was adequately compensated.

- Nature gets its due

In 2012, Romania launched a project aimed at restoring the damaged ecosystems of the Danube Delta with the help of European Union funding.

Environmentalists say that leaving the lake flooded would speed up the restoration process.

“Aquatic ecosystems recover much faster than forests,” said biologist Dragos Balea, who coordinates the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation group's programs in the delta.

“If you leave an aquatic ecosystem alone, in 10 to 15 years it will recover more than 70%” of its original biodiversity, Balea told AFP.

The signs are already encouraging.

“More and more birds are appearing,” he said, with his project monitoring more than 90 species in the delta.

The breaching of the dyke, which local authorities blamed on a series of construction faults, came as no surprise to the biologist.

"You can't mess with nature. Nature gets what it deserves,” he said.

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