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Water testing caravan in the INPCP project: Making people aware of the severity of the nitrates water pollution in Romania

GEF-IBRD Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project- Additional Financing

By IW:LEARN

November 15^th, 2021

When confronting pollution that is invisible for the people directly exposed to it, namely nitrate water pollution, a very important issue is to convince them that the problem really exists. When even higher concentration of nitrates in the drinking water cannot be detected by humans through senses, testing the water and showing the results can override any doubt.

No matter the efforts the central and local authorities make in reducing any type of pollution, the results cannot be fully attained if the polluters don’t change their old behaviors that led to the phenomenon. Therefore, the “Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project” (INPCP) has, among others, a very ambitious objective: to change old mentalities of the small farmers and householders, so that their behaviors become aligned with the institutional efforts.

The context we’re in is very specific: Romania has over 3 million small farms and households, that generate a diffuse nitrate water pollution, concentrated mainly along inhabited areas (villages).

For the problem we are confronting, we identified two main causes. The first one is that most of the people are stuck in old mentalities. When talking to them about water nitrate pollution, they reply that their grandfathers and their grand grandfathers were storing manure the same way they are and nothing happened, they all lived long and healthy lives. And you cannot blame them for believing that, because, in the end, they are preserving the way of living they grew up with. As for the second cause, they don’t take seriously the nitrate water pollution, because they are completely unaware of it. They drink fountain water and regardless of how high the nitrate concentration is, they say that it’s the best water in the world. Again, you cannot blame them, because they have no way of sensing the nitrates.

Considering all above, we decided to approach the problem by making people understand that the nitrate water pollution is real and, more important, it really exists in a part of the fountains in their village. That it has effects on their long-term health, even if they are not aware of this. And, in the end, that they are the ones producing it, through not respecting a minimal set of rules, different from the ones that they were traditionally used to, in their everyday activities as animal raisers.

The Caravan we organized had as scope to make 6.000 water tests for nitrate concentration in the fountains from the 200 localities where the INPC Project had investments, in a period of 16 weeks, from July 12th to October 29th. We used two teams, with branded uniforms, branded vehicles and a branded tent per team, that was installed in the center of the locality. The schedule was made after each local authority completed a questionnaire in which they mentioned the number of water tests that could be done in their locality and named a responsible for this action. We are very grateful to all the local authorities for their support and for promoting the Caravan locally, thing that ensured the Caravan’s success.

Water testing caravan in the INPCP project: Making people aware of the severity of the nitrates water pollution in Romania

In every locality, our promoters explained the importance of respecting the good agriculture practices, in a plain and accessible language. They offered 8 type of flyers and promotional objects (t-shirts, caps, rubber boots, rain coats) to the persons that brought water samples. The Caravan was closely monitored by INPCP representatives, which gave supplementary explanations and talked with the locals on the specific issues they encounter in their animal raising activity.

The measurements were made with color tests stripes, but we also used a digital analyzer that provided the nitrate concentration, with a margin of +/- 20%, so that the results are more obvious. Even if we stated our goal clearly from the beginning, that we are making a marketing campaign and not official measuring campaign, we still published some weekly statistics on our Facebook journal, providing the percentage of tests under 50 mg/l (potability limit in Romania) and over this limit. The Caravan got the interest of some of our major national TV channels, that made stories in prime-time news journals.

People’s reactions were various: most of the people that had over 50mg/l in their fountains were concerned, even deeply impressed, but we also had a few cases where we confronted a strong indifference from the householders, telling us that they drink their water since they were children and nothing happened yet. All of them were advised to make official tests in laboratories and the ones that had limits overpassed were advised to change their water source and to stop drinking or cooking with that water.

All the participants filled questionnaires with a few questions regarding their awareness to the good agricultural practices, that will be analyzed and used for further communication with our target group.

Even if the analysis is not yet finalized, we consider the Caravan to be a great success. We made approx. 30% more water tests than proposed, due to the large interest of the people. Data raised through questionnaires shall be, after being fully processed, an important source of inspiration for future communication with our target group. And, most of all, we are convinced that the experience people had, while finding out that they or some of their neighbors must change their water source due to the nitrate concentrations, will begin to make the necessary changes in their behaviors as animal raisers. Changing behaviors is a long-term process, maybe even trans generational, but each and every small step we do takes us closer to our goal, which is to preserve the water resource, while still having a profitable and sustainable agriculture.

Contribution by Ion Metiu, Institutional Coordinator of Components 2 & 3.

About the Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project - Additional Financing

The decision in 2013 to bring the entire territory of the country in compliance with the Water Framework Directive and Nitrate Directive posed challenges to the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Government of Romania (GoR) considered that the Bank’s continued assistance to build national level capacity to address these challenges is critical and will complement and facilitate the use of other resources.

The National Rural Development Program (PNDR) and other Government funds are available to support some of the activities which would directly or indirectly contribute to the overall reduction of nitrates pollution. However, the established eligibility criteria under the 2014-2020 PNDR excludes to a certain extent small-scale subsistence farmers, households and commune infrastructure addressing livestock waste management and Code of Good Agricultural Practices. Therefore, to ensure the implementation of the EU Nitrate Directive for small households and farms as well, the Additional Financing will support a change of scale of the Original Loan operations, namely a scale-up to national level, covering all the agro-climatic regions in the country with investments in about 100 communes highly exposed to nitrate pollution in all 11 river basins in Romania. To reflect the shift from NVZs to the countrywide scope, under AF the Component 1 was renamed from Commune-Based Investments in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) to Investments in Local Communities to Reduce Nutrient Pollution.

Romania has received a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and a Grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support the implementation of the Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project (the Project) in selected localities vulnerable or potentially vulnerable to the pollution with nutrients. The overall development objective of the project is to support the Government of Romania to meet the EU Nitrates Directive requirements by (a) reducing nutrients discharges to water bodies, (b) promoting behavioural changes at the communal level, and (c) strengthening institutional and regulatory capacity. The ultimate goal is to reduce over the long-term the discharge of nutrients and other agricultural pollutants into the Danube River and Black Sea through integrated land and water management.

The closing date of the initial INPC Project was 31st of May, 2017. Following this initial Project, the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests received an Additional Financing (AF) for the INPC Project to finance the costs associated with the scale-up nationwide of the initial Project activities, to be implemented over a six years period. The Additional Financing for scaling-up will broadly maintain the objectives and structure of the Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project (INPCP) with slight modifications, intended to reflect the realities of the current situation and lessons learned so far under initial INPCP. The Additional Financing will finance works, goods, services and operating costs and will comprise four components, which are largely the same as in the initial INPCP, with slight modifications.