The minister of economy, Bogdan Ivan, on Wednesday stated, in Praid, where he participated in a working visit together with the minister of environment, that the international experts co-opted through the European Civil Protection Mechanism are about to arrive in the area and will start working together with their Romanian counterparts.

„Those international experts co-opted through the European Civil Protection Mechanism are currently on their way to Praid. They are coming from Hungary, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. Some of them will arrive during the day. The first teams will be at work in the morning, together with their counterparts from Romania, with those specialists who are already on site, here, in Praid, to provide in real time, both to the Department for Emergency Situations and to construction specialists, relevant data related to how the situation here is developing,” said Bogdan Ivan.

He said that the most likely scenario is that the floor of the old mine at Praid will collapse, but this will happen slowly, over weeks or even months.

The minister of economy pointed out that the documents have been signed and the works to divert the course of the Corund stream have begun and, in parallel, specialists from the Ministry of Environment, Apele Romane (Romanian Waters) and the mining sector are working to see what the options are, including to eliminate the water from the Praid salt mine underground „under conditions of environmental protection and without having a negative impact on the local economy.”

Asked what he will do to prevent such situations from happening again at other exploitations, Bogdan Ivan said that he has asked all companies with mining activity under the Ministry of Economy to prepare an impact analysis, to present whether there are any potential problems and the measures that need to be taken.

Referring to the responsibility for the situation in Praid, the minister of environment, Mircea Fechet, said that it will be established by the state institutions, recalling that an investigation by the Prime Minister’s Control Body is underway, while he also wanted to point out that, in his opinion, the blame for what happened at the Praid Salt Mine belongs to people and not to the beavers, who would have prevented the performance of works in the area, as an opinion circulated in the recent days.

AGERPRES