3 Causes and Effects of Water Pollution in Romania
67
In order to evaluate the status and control the effectiveness of water protection
measures applied after the adoption of the WFD, a comprehensive monitoring plan
was developed to obtain resilient and reproducible information across all EU member states [59]. The WFD Implementation Instrument, regulated by Article 13 and
Annex VII, is the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) which, based on knowledge of the state of water bodies, sets the targets for a period of six years, involving
successive stages of planning and implementation, including public participation to
achieve them. Initially, to obtain a good environmental status for all waters, 2015
was set, but this proved to be too ambitious, setting new deadlines for RBMP implementation, the second (2016–2021) and third cycle (2022–2027), which will allow
for the identification of new programs of measures to be prepared for each updated
RBMP.
3.2 Methodology
The overall status of water can be quantified through two distinctive methods. The
first method assesses the chemical status by collecting water samples and determining
the concentrations of the chemical parameters. Based on the liaison between obtained
concentration values and current normative can be asses the water quality. The other
method involves studying aquatic biota (fish or other invertebrates) to determine
water quality. A richer biota of species and species corresponds to a higher quality
water compared to situations where the biota is extremely low reaching the total
absence of a situation characterized by a reduced water quality (Fig. 3.6).
By 2015, most EU countries have failed to achieve the objective of good environmental status but are not yet formally non-compliant because the WFD allows for
temporary relief for specific water bodies requested by the Member States. Analysing
the latest results, experts have concluded that for some polluted or heavily modified
water bodies, good environmental status may be impossible, and after a further decade
of exemptions, they could be classified as falling into less environmental objectives
provided that the country can demonstrate that it has acted with all possible means
to achieve good environmental status. Romania is almost entirely located (97.4%)
in the Danube River Basin and has 29% of the area and 21.7% of the population
of the entire basin. Romania is relatively poor in water resources, disposing of only
1870 m
3 water/inch/year, confronted by the average of 4000 m
3 water/inch/year in
Europe. It has a total area of 238,391 km
2 and a total population of 22.3 million
inhabitants of whom only 19.9 million are permanent residents [125, 123]. Romania
is still largely a rural country, with 46% of the population living in rural areas (the
highest proportion amongst all EU countries), and this has a significant impact on
water management.
67
In order to evaluate the status and control the effectiveness of water protection
measures applied after the adoption of the WFD, a comprehensive monitoring plan
was developed to obtain resilient and reproducible information across all EU member states [59]. The WFD Implementation Instrument, regulated by Article 13 and
Annex VII, is the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) which, based on knowledge of the state of water bodies, sets the targets for a period of six years, involving
successive stages of planning and implementation, including public participation to
achieve them. Initially, to obtain a good environmental status for all waters, 2015
was set, but this proved to be too ambitious, setting new deadlines for RBMP implementation, the second (2016–2021) and third cycle (2022–2027), which will allow
for the identification of new programs of measures to be prepared for each updated
RBMP.
3.2 Methodology
The overall status of water can be quantified through two distinctive methods. The
first method assesses the chemical status by collecting water samples and determining
the concentrations of the chemical parameters. Based on the liaison between obtained
concentration values and current normative can be asses the water quality. The other
method involves studying aquatic biota (fish or other invertebrates) to determine
water quality. A richer biota of species and species corresponds to a higher quality
water compared to situations where the biota is extremely low reaching the total
absence of a situation characterized by a reduced water quality (Fig. 3.6).
By 2015, most EU countries have failed to achieve the objective of good environmental status but are not yet formally non-compliant because the WFD allows for
temporary relief for specific water bodies requested by the Member States. Analysing
the latest results, experts have concluded that for some polluted or heavily modified
water bodies, good environmental status may be impossible, and after a further decade
of exemptions, they could be classified as falling into less environmental objectives
provided that the country can demonstrate that it has acted with all possible means
to achieve good environmental status. Romania is almost entirely located (97.4%)
in the Danube River Basin and has 29% of the area and 21.7% of the population
of the entire basin. Romania is relatively poor in water resources, disposing of only
1870 m
3 water/inch/year, confronted by the average of 4000 m
3 water/inch/year in
Europe. It has a total area of 238,391 km
2 and a total population of 22.3 million
inhabitants of whom only 19.9 million are permanent residents [125, 123]. Romania
is still largely a rural country, with 46% of the population living in rural areas (the
highest proportion amongst all EU countries), and this has a significant impact on
water management.