Posted on July, 18 2024

With concerns growing about the impact of reviving a dormant, communist-era hydropower project in Romania, a coalition of NGOs today called on the government to immediately and permanently ban the dam - since its construction would do far more harm than good as well as breaking national and EU laws, and undermining Romania’s international commitment to reverse nature loss.

The dam in question is the long-stalled Răstolița hydropower plant on the Mureș river. It was first conceived in the final days of the Socialist Republic of Romania and given a green light back in 1991 when environmental permits were two pages long, few people understood the negative impacts of hydropower dams, and Romania was not even dreaming of being a member of the EU.

Thirty years later, the State-owned Hidroelectrica, Romania's largest hydropower producer, is applying for permission to resuscitate this project as part of the country’s efforts to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. However, it is clear that the dam’s huge social and environmental costs would far outweigh the insignificant 35 MW of energy it would produce: energy that could be provided more cost-effectively by lower impact, renewable alternatives. Just a dozen wind turbines would do the job.

“We are at a crossroads in Romania: we can choose the path towards a nature-positive and resilient future, or we can resort to outdated, 20th century plans, like the Răstolița dam, which will wreck more of our rivers and destroy more of our forests - and make local communities more vulnerable,” said Barbara Bendandi, WWF-Romania’s Conservation Director. “Greenlighting this zombie dam will only benefit Hidroelectrica: it will profit, while future generations of Romanians will pay the price of increased water scarcity and nature loss. The government must not bring this dam back from the dead.”

The environmental permit for Răstolița expired years ago and Hidroelectrica is now waiting for the government’s approval to resume development. Together with members of the Federation Natura 2000 Coalition, Bankwatch Romania, Declic and 2Celsius, WWF is calling on the authorities to reject the project due to the risks it poses. If approved, the project will:

• Destroy 170 hectares of forest at the crossroads of 3 Natura 2000 protected areas;
• Fragment the biodiverse Mureș river and impact severely 9 other rivers;
• Impact 43 protected areas that are sustained by those rivers;
• Impact 2 Key Biodiversity Areas, globally important places for species and habitats;
• Drive the local extinction of the iconic and critically endangered, Danube Salmon.

Along with threatening species populations, degrading these river and forest ecosystems will impact water quantity and quality downstream, with effects felt as far as Hungary, as well as undermine long term resilience just as Romania is facing ever-increasing impacts from climate change, such as droughts and extreme floods.

“This project makes zero sense! Politically, economically, environmentally and climatically, we are living in a totally different world from 30 years ago: we need to solve today’s challenges with today’s solutions, not a destructive legacy project left over from communist days,” said Stuart Orr, WWF’s Global Freshwater Lead. “It’s time for Romania to invest in alternative solutions such as low impact solar and wind, not hydropower, and in protecting and restoring nature and rivers to build resilience rather than destroying them.”

Ironically, the Romanian government is mulling the decision to approve the dam just weeks after voting to approve the landmark EU Nature Restoration Law, which highlights the importance of restoring healthy ecosystems in tackling climate and nature crises - and sets a target of restoring at least 25,000 km of river by 2030 by removing dams and other barriers. It also comes less than two years after Romania signed up to the ambitious Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which explicitly calls for the protection of 30% of inland waters.

But the Răstolița dam would also infringe a series of existing national laws, which ban the exploitation of natural resources in Natura 2000 sites and forest clearances in the Călimani National Park, as well as EU Directives on natural habitats, wild species, and water.

Furthermore, the new environmental impact assessments are incomplete and superficial, resulting in biased conclusions that do not consider the cumulative effects of the different components of the project and do not fully address key aspects related to ecological connectivity and the habitats of protected species.

“Romania can accelerate its transition to renewable energy, while also living up to its commitments to reverse nature loss and strengthen adaptation to the climate crisis,” said Claire Baffert, Senior Policy Officer on Water and Climate change adaptation in the WWF European Policy Office. “The compatibility of the Răstolița project should be properly checked against EU environmental laws, in particular the Habitats directive and the Water Framework Directive.”

“Romania still harbours many unique natural assets, which represent an important basis for sustainable rural development. Hydropower development is directly threatening such prospects for many valleys in the Carpathian Mountains, as about one half  of all hydropower plants in Romania are located in Natura 2000 or other protected areas, thus actually destroying what should be protected”, said Dr Martin Pusch from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin.

Together with several Romanian scientists he has systematically analysed the environmental impacts and efficiency of hydropower plants in Romania.

Dr Pusch added, “We have documented that after the construction of hydropower plants in mountain streams, trout populations often disappeared completely, The significant environmental impacts of  hydropower plants like the one planned in Răstolița thus do not justify the only circa 0.05 percent gain in electricity. Energy transition towards renewable energy is way more cost-efficient if investments are made in wind and solar power sectors. This is why solar electricity production in Europe has tripled in the last ten years, and wind energy doubled, while hydropower showed no consistent growth.”

While authorities at various levels have claimed that the project is already at an advanced stage as significant preparatory work was done years ago, ‘producing the first kilowatt’ will still require massive investments, which will be shouldered by Romanian taxpayers. And completing the project will, of course, result in huge costs for people, nature and resilience.

For all these reasons, the coalition is urging the government to immediately and permanently ban the Răstolița hydropower dam - and focus on replacing its potential energy with more sustainable investments in solar and wind energy, or even retrofitting old hydropower plants.