A Preliminary Review of damage caused by floods in Romania
24 people drowned and over 10.000 people were evacuated.
22 Iulie 2010, 10:52
Scorched in the last few days by a heat wave that has already claimed victims, Romania is trying to come to terms with the total damage caused by floods that hit the rest of this summer so far.
24 people drowned, over 10,000 people evacuated, thousands of homes destroyed or damaged, and thousands of hectares of farmland and pasture under water; the prime minister, Emil Boc, said that it amounts to hundreds of millions in damage.
He also admitted that this situation has caused his government to consider adjusting its position in relation to the IMF regarding the budget deficit target for this year.
The IMF imposes deficit targets because it has lent Romania around 20 billion Euro together with the WB and the EU to cover regular expenses during the economic crisis.
At this point, although local authorities were supposed to report their figures for the damage in their areas, some local councils have not centralized and submitted their data. What is certain is that 37 of the 41 Romanian counties were affected by the flood one way or another. Worst hit are the north eastern ones.
Suceava reports damage worth 84 million Euro, Botosani and Bacau report 25 million each. At this point, centralizing these figures is paramount, because they are essential in deciding whether or not Romania qualifies for aid from Brussels.
The press warns that this damage will in fact be monitored on the long term, as long as repairs are being done on homes and infrastructure, and for as long as people are stranded and rely on assistance.
In addition, as the Bucharest daily Evenimentul Zilei reports, “the price of Romanian bread swells like the rising waters'.
The explanation provided is that “because of the rain, the wheat harvest will drop to three tons per hectare, compared to five last year. The price of bread will go up, because wheat will have to be imported”.
Agricultural producers are also in a panic because the production for sunflower, barley and rapeseed will also drop.
On top of that, writes Evenimentul Zilei, “dropping purchasing power in Romania will also affect them”, since budget sector employee salaries have been cut by 25%, and the VAT rate was raised from 19 to 25%.
Against this nightmare background, with natural disasters falling on top of the economic crisis, the daily Gandul writes that “the government plays that central role in economic recovery, while the prime minister is the key that winds the mechanism of government.”
The problem, the paper writes in regret, is its lack of authority. As they put it, “Boc moves fast, but goes nowhere, and has no real contact with his underlings, the ministers. We have a crisis to manage, we have a president, a government, and no prime minister to be seen”.
(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).
