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The environment is not a critical infrastructure, but our life depends, in a short or medium perspective, on factors that become critical elements, Environment Minister Tanczos Barna said on Thursday, underscoring that never before has the environment been put under so much pressure by human activity.
"The environment is not necessarily a critical infrastructure, but our daily life depends on factors that become critical elements in a short or medium perspective. Never before has the environment been put under so much pressure by human activity. The air we breathe every day in big cities, the water we consume daily, no matter the size of the locality, the way we manage waste and how it affects our daily life, this new danger of plastic pollution is critical to our lives. Even if the Ministry of Environment does not manage a specific critical infrastructure, even if the drinking water networks, which are considered critical infrastructure, are not under our direct management, I believe that the way we relate to environmental protection issues, water protection issues, air protection issues, air quality issues are critical elements and will be more and more important in the near future," minister Tanczos Barna stated at the Critical Infrastructure Protection Forum - CIP Forum, organised by the National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics - ICI Bucharest.
He added that areas such as forest protection at European and global level, which influence carbon sequestration, drinking water supply or waste water management, air quality and the environment "are coming closer and closer to the notion of critical elements or critical infrastructure."
"This is why the implementation of the new European directives in terms of water quality and drinking water network management is a huge challenge for Romania. We are a country that has not yet solved this problem. Barely 60pct of Romania's citizens are connected to a drinking water or sewage network. There are localities in the 21st century that even today do not have a domestic water supply. There are still companies in various industrial, agricultural areas which do not observe the legislation and do not respect this principle of not destroying the water that our children and we consume the next day. These areas are becoming increasingly important and the influence that they have on our daily activities is growing," the minister pointed out.
He mentioned that another essential infrastructure is the radiation monitoring network, the risk in this respect is higher than 2-3 years ago.
"Radioactive pollution in Romania has been and still is extremely important, and the importance of this network is growing with the increasing tensions in Ukraine, with the risks arising in the Chernobyl area, in the Zaporizhzhia area. This network provides us with accurate, real daily information on radiation levels. It should be mentioned that since the beginning of the war, there has never been a day when the standard radiation levels that we have been measuring for decades in Romania have been exceeded. But the danger exists, the risk is much higher than 2 or 3 years ago. That is why, this radioactivity monitoring network in Romania is essential," Tanczos Barna said.
Further more, the minister also brought to mind waste management, which seems like a secondary issue, but it is not, because the way we manage this resource affects our lives, our waters, our soil and our future. AGERPRES
