Romania has already started investing in clean energy, such as solar, wind and hydro energy sources and this will hopefully reduce the level of air pollution caused by burning fossil fuel. Nicoleta will give us more details about the OPPORTUNITIES.
1.What are the long term air quality objectives in Romania?
We plan to
•Eliminate 50% of high ozone episodes observed over Romania.
•Reduce by 30% the number of high NO2 episodes in Bucharest.
•reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted, thus reducing the impact on climate change.
2.How can people be encouraged to use public transport and bicycles instead of personal cars?
There are several methods. We can
•Reduce the price of the tickets of the buses and trains and of the season tickets
•Upgrade the buses and the trains to the 21st century comfort standards;
•Organize public debates in order to show the advantages of public transport;
•Build more tracks for bicycles;
•Create places from where people could hire bicycles;
•Raise the price of the parking places.
3.Are there any national campaigns?
The Romanian Waters National Association has started the campaign “Let’s keep our waters clean”, which consists in clean-up activities organised by volunteers around major rivers.
They also try to raise awareness by publishing a children’s book “Ovi’s Adventures” distributed in schools and teaching young students how to protect the waters and what effect water pollution has on the water-living creatures. The blog also offers useful advice on how to keep waters clean, by suggesting fun activities such as PET-fishing.
4.What more can be done to promote sustainable use of clean water?
Some suggestions are to
•Make legislation which severely punishes both pollution factors and illegal fishing;
•Make students aware of the importance of clean water by introducing special classes, public debates, competitions;
•Educate children to save water and let them know how important clean water is;
•Encourage farmers to use drip irrigation systems in order to save water.
Our town
Air and Water
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