The parliamentary inquiry into the state of land reclamation works in Romania, 2009

Between June 24 and September 13, 2009 the Agriculture Commission of the Romanian Parliament conducted an inquiry into the state of land reclamation works in Romania. The main objectives were: rehabilitation and maintenance works, the exploitation of the works, the way in which the financial resources were used for their maintenance and exploitation, the measures taken to urge irrigations, the losses and costs of watering delays, other problems. From the conclusions of the inquiry we notice: the state of the works is generally unsatisfactory in all aspects. Maintenance works are incomplete either due to the lack of financial resources, or due to a low interest on the part of the user, or pure and simple some irrigation works in some areas have proven to be technically and economically unviable. Among the causes of not realizing the irrigation programs we tackle: the disappearance of large-scale agricultural holdings corresponding to the irrigation systems' constructive schemes, the lack of watering equipment, increasing water fees, the discrepancy between the rehabilitated areas and the establishment of beneficiary irrigation organizations and even the non-observance of the contracts between the water supplier (the state) and the agricultural users. There has been much criticism of the frequent reorganizations and especially of the 138/2004 Law, which separated the administration from the part that had as its object the maintenance and rehabilitation and construction works. In addition, the paper also contains some data on previous analyses and research results of this paper’s author.