A Russian bombing of a Ukrainian hydropower plant caused petrol to leak into the Dniester river, a crucial source of water for Moldova – and while a clean-up is underway, fears of future attacks remain.
Maria Gerth-Niculescu
Each day at around 6.30 a.m., Oleg Betivu searches for traces of petrol on the surface of the Dniester River, near the northern Moldovan village of Arionesti.
Dressed in camouflage trousers and a matching jacket, he bends over and points to a purple patch on the flat river surface. “The pollution reaches up to here and stops upstream before the filters [recently installed to clear it up],” he says.
The head of the Donduseni office of Moldova’s Environment Inspectorate is tasked with monitoring pollution of the Dniester following a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Novodnistrovsk Hydroelectric Power Plant in early March.
The bombing caused petrol to leak into the Dniester, which originates in Ukraine before flowing southwards into Moldova. The river also constitutes the border between the two countries.
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