Drought is rampant in many European countries, and according to the media, this crisis has led to the drying up of some lakes in Romania, including the Amara lake in this country, and has turned it into a dry grassland.
“SRF” of Switzerland discussed the consequences of drought in Romania in a report and wrote: Lake Amara in Romania has turned into a steppe in just a few years, which is considered a disaster for the people and local wildlife of this country.
Yunel Kuman, one of the residents of this area drives his rusty motorcycle to the middle of the lake. He says: Three years ago, the water was up to the waist, but today a pit shines in the distance and all the soil and grass are dry.
Koman says: “Three years ago, everything was green there and the water was full of fish.” According to him, 50 to 60 fishermen came here daily, mainly for carp fishing, and this lake was beautiful.
Slightly larger than the Pfäffikersee in Zurich or the Wohlensee in Bern, the area was teeming with life until a few years ago. There were many wild geese, ducks, pelicans and swans in the area, but today at most the wind rustles in the dried reeds.
Nikolay Vasil, another resident of this area, says: The transformation of Amara Lake into a steppe started about ten years ago. Since then, the temperature has increased year by year. The water has evaporated and the lake has dried up.
The crisis of the dried-up Amara Lake has also involved Sorin Rindasu, the director of emergencies at the Romanian National Water Agency. In this regard, he says: At least 70% of the drying up of Amara Lake is the result of climate change.
According to the water expert, the other 30 percent is due to the rerouting of the nearby river after a flood decades ago and not enough being done to maintain important feeder channels.
At least part of Lake Amara can be restored, says Hendes Rindasu. However, this would be expensive. In this regard, he said: Canals should be dredged, a pumping station should be developed and all these should be maintained. That won’t happen in the foreseeable future: “There’s no money for it right now.”
The heat wave and drought have caused serious consequences not only in Romania but also in many European countries. Among other things, severe drought and lack of water have caused early drying of French grain fields and threatened agriculture in the south of this country.
While the water stress in France along with the high temperature has caused a crisis in the supply of fresh water in other parts of the country and the residents of nearly 90 districts have been forced to buy water from tankers and bottles, reports indicate that the crisis in the sector Agriculture is far more intensive.
In the last month, at least 300,000 French people in the south of this country were deprived of access to drinking water, and at the same time, the northern regions saw the destruction of crops due to floods. In this situation, the French government’s plan to create 100 artificial water reservoirs in order to provide enough water for farmers during the drought has created intense debates in this country and led to protests that are still ongoing.
In this way, while many people in France have recently got used to these conditions that they have to save electricity, but now water is also scarce in this country, and the summer heat and winter drought have worried the country’s authorities.
France recently experienced one of the driest winters in more than half a century. It rained very little in France last winter. According to weather service Météo France, since weather records began in 1959, there has never been such a long period without rain in winter in France. The soils were significantly dry at this time of year.
Data from the European Drought Observatory shows that 28 percent of Europe was in dry conditions in the first 10 days of this month.
Southern Europe is now slowly moving into the drought recovery phase, but Northern Europe is in the early drought phase with a severe lack of rainfall.
A new drought is also forming around the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland and Germany.
According to statistics, last year’s heat wave led to the death of more than 61,600 people in 35 European countries along with devastating fires.
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