Chișinău, September 2026
The undersigned environmental non-governmental organisations, representing civil society in the Republic of Moldova, wish to draw the attention of central and local public authorities, as well as the general public, to the gravity of the current hydrological situation and to the need for urgent, coherent and long-term measures to manage the country’s water resources.
On 28 July 2026, by Government Decision No. 378/2026, a state of hydrological alert was declared for a period of 30 days, following the critical decline in the flow of the Dniester River and the major risk to the operation of water intake stations supplying drinking water and irrigation. This decision officially confirms what the environmental community has been signalling for years: the Republic of Moldova is facing a long-term hydrological crisis, not merely a passing weather event.
The state of hydrological alert was extended by Government Decision No. 494 of 26.08.2026 for a further 30 days, in order to prevent and mitigate the impact of reduced water flow in the Dniester and Prut rivers, taking into account the risk assessment regarding the security of water intake stations used for drinking water supply and irrigation, as well as the need to protect the environment, critical infrastructure and public health.
Following the successive extensions of the state of hydrological alert, on 22 September 2026 the Government proposed to the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova the declaration of a state of emergency in the energy and hydrological sectors for a period of 60 days. By Decision No. 222 of 22 September 2026, Parliament approved the declaration of a state of emergency in the energy and hydrological sectors, effective 26 September 2026, citing as grounds the worsening hydrological situation of the Dniester River, given that the volume of inflows into the reservoir is currently about three times lower than the volume of outflows.
This situation should not be seen merely as the consequence of a dry year. It must be analysed in the broader context of climate change, declining natural water availability, alterations to watercourses, the degradation of soils and ecosystems, water abstraction and use, and the existing infrastructure.
Drought is a natural phenomenon amplified by climate change. However, society’s vulnerability to drought is, to a large extent, the result of how we manage land and water.
Official data contained in water resource planning and management documents support this finding:
- The average annual flow volume of the Dniester River is about 9.2 km³, but it can drop to 6 km³ in dry years, a reduction of more than 30% compared to the average (Dniester River Basin District Management Plan, Cycle II 2025–2030, approved by Government Decision No. 70/2025).
- The average annual flow volume of the Prut River is 2.7 km³, but it can fall to as little as 1.2 km³ in years of insufficient precipitation, practically halving it (Danube–Prut and Black Sea River Basin District Management Programme, approved by Government Decision No. 444/2022).
- Most of the national territory lies within sub-humid and semi-arid regions with a high risk of drought and desertification; average annual precipitation has already decreased by 7.2% between the reference periods 1961–1990 and 1991–2020.
- Over the past two decades, the Republic of Moldova has experienced seven severe droughts: 2000, 2003, 2007, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020, some affecting up to 100% of the country’s territory and causing economic losses amounting to billions of lei.
- Most small rivers in both river basin districts have been heavily modified hydromorphologically through straightening, regulation and damming, which drastically reduces their natural capacity to retain and replenish water, with many of them drying up completely during critical periods.
- Agriculture accounts for about 70% of the total volume of water used nationally, often through inefficient irrigation methods, while the area irrigated by centralised and modern systems remains extremely limited.
- A significant part of the water supply still relies on decentralised sources, such as wells and springs, which are neither registered nor metered, making accurate management of consumption during crises almost impossible.
These figures reveal a fundamental vulnerability: the country must plan its development not on the basis of the amount of water available in a favourable year, but on the system’s capacity to function in years of water deficit.
Over the past two decades, the Republic of Moldova has gone through several severe drought episodes, some affecting a very large part of its territory and causing considerable economic losses. At the same time, precipitation and the climate regime are changing, and pressure on water resources is increasing.
Consequently, water security can no longer be managed solely through emergency measures adopted once water levels and flows have already reached critical values.
Although the availability of water resources is a persistent problem, the volume of water abstracted from surface sources has increased significantly, for example in the districts of Criuleni (almost nine-fold), Strășeni (2.8-fold), Dubăsari (2.6-fold), and Anenii Noi and Căușeni (two-fold).
Within the Danube–Prut and Black Sea River Basin District, the most significant pressures are the interruption of river continuity through dam construction and water abstraction.
These circumstances call for a radical change in how water resources are managed and used for economic activities, including changes to the permitted volumes of water abstraction and to the way agriculture is practised.
Beyond the drastic reduction in water volumes in the Prut and the Dniester, the current crisis also directly affects the country’s internal river network. Over the decades, most small rivers in the Danube, Prut and Dniester basins have been heavily modified hydromorphologically — straightened, regulated and dammed — which has significantly reduced their natural capacity to retain, recharge and replenish water. Today, a growing number of these secondary watercourses dry up partially or completely during peak drought periods, a phenomenon felt directly by the communities that depended on them for watering livestock or other household needs.
An approach limited to the Dniester and the Prut alone would overlook an essential part of the problem. The river network of the Republic of Moldova consists of numerous small rivers, streams, valleys, springs, wetlands and other ecosystems that contribute to the circulation, retention and infiltration of water.
Many of these systems have been altered through the straightening and regulation of riverbeds, the construction of dams, the drainage of wetlands and other interventions that have diminished the natural functions of aquatic ecosystems.
The result is paradoxical: during heavy rainfall, water can run off the land quickly, fuelling erosion and flash floods, while in dry periods less water is retained in the soil, in wetlands, in floodplains and in the river network.
A drought-resilient country is not one that merely seeks new sources of water, but one that also takes measures to retain water within its territory.
At European level, according to the latest report of the European Environment Agency, “Europe’s State of Water 2024”, water stress already affects 20% of Europe’s territory and 30% of its population every year — figures likely to rise due to climate change — a sign that the problem concerns not only the volume abstracted, but the increasingly limited availability of the resource itself.
On 4 June 2025, the European Commission adopted the European Water Resilience Strategy, the most recent and comprehensive policy document in this field. It sets the objective of reducing water consumption by 10% by 2030 through efficiency and reuse across all sectors, infrastructure modernisation and accelerated innovation. The document explicitly recognises the central role of agriculture, identifying it as the largest water user in the EU, accounting for 59% of total consumption.
THE DNIESTER: A STRATEGIC RESOURCE AND A VITAL ECOSYSTEM
The Dniester should not be regarded solely as a source of water for consumption, industry or irrigation. It is at the same time:
- the country’s main hydrological artery;
• an ecosystem of national and international importance;
• a biodiversity corridor;
• a source of water for the population and the economy;
• an important element for agriculture in the basin;
• a natural system that helps regulate ecological and microclimatic conditions in riparian areas.
The significant reduction in flow and the alteration of the Dniester’s hydrological regime must therefore be analysed not only in terms of the amount of water available for abstraction, but also in terms of the functioning of the entire ecosystem.
It is important to make a scientific distinction: the decline in the Dniester’s flow cannot be presented as the cause of meteorological drought across the entire Republic of Moldova. Drought is determined primarily by atmospheric and hydrological conditions throughout the basin and is amplified by climate change.
At the same time, changes to the Dniester’s hydrological regime, the loss of water surfaces and the degradation of floodplains and wetlands can heighten the vulnerability of ecosystems and affect local conditions of temperature, humidity, biodiversity and ecological functioning.
AGRICULTURE MUST BECOME MORE DROUGHT-RESILIENT
Agriculture is one of the main users of water resources, and pressure on this resource will increase as the climate changes. The response should not be an arbitrary reduction of agricultural activity, but rather its transformation into a more efficient and resilient sector.
This entails:
- reducing water losses during abstraction and conveyance;
• modernising irrigation systems;
• expanding efficient irrigation;
• monitoring soil moisture;
• scheduling irrigation according to the actual water needs of crops;
• using crops and varieties adapted to local conditions;
• maintaining soil cover;
• reducing erosion;
• expanding agroforestry and forest shelterbelts;
• increasing the soil’s water-holding capacity.
WE CANNOT MANAGE WHAT WE DO NOT MEASURE
A fundamental problem remains the lack of accurate information on water consumption and abstraction. A substantial part of the water supply relies on decentralised sources, and the absence of registration and metering makes it difficult to assess actual consumption. In the context of a hydrological crisis, this situation is no longer acceptable.
The Republic of Moldova needs a transparent and integrated system for monitoring:
- river flows;
• water levels;
• abstractions;
• consumption;
• groundwater;
• irrigation;
• the ecological status of aquatic ecosystems.
The relevant data must be made available to the public in an accessible format.
WATER SECURITY IS A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Water security cannot be achieved solely through abstraction points, pipelines, pumping stations, dams or reservoirs. The Republic of Moldova has a natural water retention infrastructure: forests, soils, floodplains, wetlands, springs, small rivers, valleys and groundwater recharge zones. This infrastructure must be protected and restored.
In this regard, civil society considers it necessary to shift from an approach based predominantly on draining water rapidly off the land to one based on:
retention → infiltration → storage → efficient use → reuse.
The Government is responsible for establishing the legislative and institutional framework and ensuring its implementation.
Local authorities must protect the water sources and ecosystems within their territory.
Farmers must be supported in adopting efficient technologies.
Businesses must use water responsibly and reduce losses.
And society must understand that water is not an unlimited resource.
Water security cannot be built by a single institution. It must become a shared goal of the state and society.
In light of the current situation, we call on the Government and the relevant public authorities to undertake the following:
- Strict and transparent enforcement of the measures provided for in Parliament Decision No. 222/2026, Government Decision No. 378/2026 and Government Decision No. 494/2026, with clear prioritisation of drinking water supply to the population over other uses, and regular public communication on flow developments and the decisions taken.
- Establishment of a permanent mechanism for monitoring and public communication on the state of water resources, not only for the duration of the state of emergency.
- Introduction of hydrological security criteria into infrastructure, agriculture, urban planning, energy and regional development projects.
- Development of a National Programme for Hydrological Security and Drought Resilience, with clear objectives, indicators, deadlines and responsibilities, including a review of land-use policies so that protecting the hydrological functions of the territory becomes a mandatory criterion of spatial planning.
- Acceleration of afforestation on land of low agricultural quality and of riparian protection strips, restoration of wetlands and floodplains, and the creation of buffer zones along watercourses, in line with local ecological conditions and river basin management plans — measures already provided for in both river basin management plans approved by the Government.
- Reorganisation of the use and management of agricultural land in order to increase the soil’s capacity to retain moisture and to prevent land degradation, as well as promotion of the transition to drought-resistant crops with lower water requirements, including through the gradual reduction of areas under intensively irrigated maize and other water-intensive crops in favour of crops better adapted to water-deficit conditions.
- Development of incentive mechanisms for planting forests on agricultural land, regardless of its quality rating. Review of land use across the territory of the Republic of Moldova by reducing agricultural areas in favour of forested areas.
- Expansion of metering and monitoring of water abstractions, including decentralised sources, to enable management based on actual data rather than estimates.
- Modernisation of irrigation systems, with priority given to efficient irrigation technologies, including drip irrigation, equipping all intake points with flow meters and monitoring systems, and using soil moisture sensors and irrigation scheduling based on actual evapotranspiration.
- Expansion of nature-based solutions on agricultural land, through forest shelterbelts, grassed strips and buffer zones along watercourses, agroforestry, permanent or seasonal soil cover, reduced intensive tillage and other practices that slow water runoff and increase infiltration and the soil’s capacity to retain moisture.
- Protection and restoration of natural water storage and infiltration areas, including floodplains, valleys, ravines, wetlands, springs and land playing an important role in groundwater recharge. These areas must be identified and integrated into spatial planning documents, urban plans and local climate change adaptation plans, in order to prevent their conversion, drainage or degradation.
- Support, within the framework of cross-border cooperation, for measures to restore the upper Dniester basin, including the conservation and expansion of forest cover, erosion control and the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Promotion, within the Dniester Commission, of stronger efforts by Ukraine to reforest areas of the Carpathians affected by deforestation in recent decades.
- Initiation of steps to involve the left bank of the Dniester in cooperation on the sustainable management of the Dniester river basin, including the coordination of the operation of the Dubăsari Hydropower Plant and the use of water resources for irrigation.
- Establishment of a permanent dialogue mechanism on water resource management between authorities, local communities, farmers, academia, the private sector and civil society.
The declaration of a state of hydrological emergency on the Dniester River must not be an isolated episode, followed by a return to business as usual once the current crisis subsides. It must mark the beginning of a genuine paradigm shift in how the Republic of Moldova manages water — an increasingly scarce resource in a country increasingly affected by climate change.
We call on citizens, communities, farmers, local authorities, research institutions and the business community to treat water as a strategic and finite resource.
Protecting a spring, a small wetland, a forest strip, a river or a piece of land that retains water may seem insignificant. Across an entire river basin, however, such actions determine how much water remains in the territory and how resilient the country is in dry years.
We call on the Government, Parliament and local authorities to treat hydrological security as a long-term national priority, and not merely as a reactive response to crises.
Signatory organisations:
- International Association of River Keepers “Eco-Tiras”
- Association of Environmental and Ecotourism Journalists of the Republic of Moldova
- Public Association EcoContact
- Public Association Ecological Society “BIOTICA”
- Terra-1530
- Alliance for Energy Efficiency and Renewables
- National Environmental Centre
- Public Association CAROMA NORD
- Amnesty International Moldova
- Public Association Eco-Sor
- Foundation for Development of the Republic of Moldova
- Public Association for Children and Youth “FĂCLIA”
- SOS Codru
- Public Association Pădurea Noastră (Our Forest)
- Public Association Ecodigital
- Public Association Cutezătorul
- Public Association LuRenOm
- Public Association FIX ERA
- Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature of the Republic of Moldova
