by Georgiana Anghel Pange
Abstract: Context.ro investigation reveals Romania’s severe mismanagement of flood defenses, despite having one of the EU’s highest flood-related death rates. Authorities spent nearly €6 million on a disaster management project, Ro-Risk, yet its central website has been defunct for years. Now, another €1 million is being allocated to revive the platform by 2027.
This inefficiency is systemic. While having access to €340 million in EU funds for critical infrastructure, the government has neglected essential dam and dike repairs, even cutting the budget by €46 million. With over 550,000 people at risk and key infrastructure projects delayed or downsized, the country’s response to the escalating climate threat consists of broken digital tools and decaying physical defenses, leaving its citizens critically vulnerable.
Context.ro conducted a six-month-long investigation looking into how Romania is using funds to mitigate risks associated with the climate crisis. Romanian journalists found that hundreds of millions of euros in EU funds that the country has access to – are either left unspent or are being allocated to dubious projects.
Romania has one of the highest rates of flood-related deaths in the EU, yet the government has spent nearly €6 million on a project involving a broken website and studies aimed at disaster management over the last decade. Floods pose a threat to more than half a million Romanians and affect 13% of the country’s land area. Despite this, authorities are allocating another €1 million to a platform that is currently inactive.
Additionally, Context.ro has uncovered that, despite having access to €340 million in European funds, the state has neglected to repair the dikes and dams that are critical for flood management.
KEY INFORMATION:
- Romania ranks among the EU countries with the highest number of deaths and the most severely damaged homes due to floods. Approximately 13% of the country’s land area is prone to flooding.
- Despite numerous documents highlighting the critical state of flood defense infrastructure, authorities have reduced funding for these projects by 46 million euros from European funds.
- Between 2014 and 2021, Romania invested 15 billion euros in disaster management, prevention, mitigation, and preparedness efforts.
- Additionally, although the National Administration “Romanian Waters” (ANAR) identified six water reservoirs that require urgent intervention, only one has had tenders organized for necessary work.
A Defense System That “Is Not Fully Functional”
In September 2024, heavy rainfall in the south of Romania caused floods that led to the death of four people, adding to the high number of casualties due to natural disasters. In June 2025, the Praid historical salt mine, a popular international tourist attraction, was nearly destroyed by floods, resulting in contamination of a local river. These are just a few of the disasters that hit Romania over the last year.
The total damages estimated for the last decade exceed €10 billion.
Between 2016-2018, the Romanian authorities have invested nearly six million euros in studies and the development of a website aimed at mitigating the effects of natural disasters through improved preparedness, and the development of scenarios related to floods. The initiative – called Ro-Risk – is managed by the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU).
In response to the floods that have gained public attention this year, the 6-million-euro project included the following components:
- Analysis of flash flood hazards and the creation of a flash flood hazard map.
- Development of a comprehensive hazard study that addresses both floods caused by overflowing watercourses and flash floods.
- Conducting three field campaigns over 4 days for the first campaign, 4 days for the second campaign, and 3 days for the third campaign, with each campaign involving a team of five people.
- Compilation of a list of 40 scenarios, taking into account current flood risk areas classified as primary, medium, and low risk zones, as well as analysis of phenomena occurring in small river basins.
- Detailed descriptions of ten scenarios, including the causes, contributing factors, and triggering elements associated with each
The project took place from 2016 to 2018, and authorities are now seeking to revive aspects of it. However, the Court of Accounts reported in 2023, and the World Bank in 2024, that Romania has a flood defense system that is not fully operational. This is due to a lack of financial and human resources, resulting in inadequate maintenance of the existing flood defense infrastructure. Furthermore, there is currently a shortage of specialized personnel – who are also overburdened – which could lead to challenges in executing major flood-related operations.
15 Billion Euros for Disaster Protection
Ro-Risk, a project that has not been functional since 2023, is included in the National Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction for 2024-2035, which was approved in July 2024. This strategy reveals that between 2014 and 2021, Romania invested 15 billion euros from national funds in disaster management, prevention, mitigation, and preparedness. An additional 1.5 billion euros came from European funds. The document states that these investments aimed at strengthening early warning systems (SAT), enhance risk assessment knowledge (Ro-Risk), improve monitoring and forecasting capabilities within specialized agencies, and refine warning communications (RO-ALERT).
RO-Risk: Inactive for Two Years
The RO-Risk project, managed by IGSU, focused on developing an online platform that served as a central component in disaster risk management. This platform represented a significant portion of the project’s budget, but it has been inactive for the past two years.
Allocation of 5.7 Million Euros from the European Project
The project involved 12 other institutions coordinated by IGSU, which received a share of the dedicated funding for risk assessment.
IGSU received over 2 million euros, while the Ministry of Environment received almost 900,000 euros. The ministry was responsible for conducting the first national assessment of flood and drought risks.
The Institutes of Geography, Economic Forecasting, and Sociology together received over 760,000 euros. The Institute of Geography focused on assessing landslides, floods, and droughts. The Institute of Sociology evaluated the social and psychological impact, whereas the Institute of Economic Forecasting conducted an economic impact assessment.
A document produced by the academy is publicly available on the IGSU website.
The next institution with the largest allocation under the Ro-Risk project was Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, which received over 550,000 euros. The university carried out an assessment of major accident risks related to hazardous substances (Seveso) and accidents involving hazardous goods and waste.
The 1.4 Million Euro Website Is Non-Functional
The 5.7 million euros allocated to the project resulted in several documents being published on the IGSU website. These documents include calculation methodologies for disaster risk assessment and initial assessments for ten types of risks: earthquakes, floods, landslides, forest fires, droughts, Seveso accidents, hazardous waste accidents, nuclear, epidemics, and epizootics/zoonoses.
Additionally, the project aimed to provide reports that illustrate the social, economic, and environmental impacts of these ten types of risks. However, only one report—the risk assessment for the transport of hazardous substances—is currently available on the IGSU website. We reached out to IGSU for clarification regarding the remaining reports and learned that the transfer of documents from the old site has not yet been completed, but the reports will be uploaded to the project’s dedicated section soon – but did not provide a specific date.
One of the project’s key objectives was the creation of a website—www.ro-risk.ro—that includes risk maps derived from the assessments conducted. This online platform also facilitated the exchange of information among institutions responsible for risk management. The Ro-Risk project spanned from 2017 to 2023. Out of the more than 2 million euros available for the project, nearly 1.4 million euros were allocated to contractors responsible for setting up the online platform.
According to the IGSU press office: “The platform was available to authorities with disaster risk management responsibilities from 2017 until 2023 via the link https://gis.ro-risk.ro. However, the progressive degradation of hardware equipment, due to physical wear and technological obsolescence, has led to a significant decline in system performance, currently operating at approximately 30% of its capacity. This has negatively impacted both the accessibility and reliability of the services offered.”
Where Did the Money Go?
Agora Est Consulting created the risk assessment methodology. However, according to termene.ro, the company has not submitted its balance sheet to Romania’s tax authority ANAF, since 2021. The administrator and sole associate, Florin Bondar, was appointed by United Save Romania – now a partner in the recently installed coalition government – in 2018, as an alternate member of the Coordinating Council of the National Institute of Administration.
The two legal entities behind the platform
We identified two tenders for the creation of the platform, which was intended to allow users to visualize risk maps generated as part of the project, and was valued at approximately €1.4 million.
It was a consortium of ESRI Romania SRL, and Bion Advanced Support Team SRL that developed the Ro-Risk platform.
Bion Advanced Support Team is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and is linked to Teamnet Internațional, a company led by Sebastian Ghiță, according to an investigation by Rise Project. The investigation reveals that the company was also involved in “the largest European project for combating and monitoring domestic violence in the country,” a cdeal worth 38 million euros.
However, “only one in five euros directly reached the victims. The remaining funds disappeared through the companies involved in the project—spent on IT systems, salaries, renovations, conferences, and studies,” an independent analysis revealed later on.
ESRI Romania, the other partner in the consortium, reported in 2024 a turnover of 4.2 million euros and a profit of 320 euros. The company provides analysis and visualization of digital maps, satellite images, and infrastructure data (such as roads and buildings) as well as topographic data. It was awarded over 500 contracts with the state, valued at €32 million, according to Lege5.ro. In a 2013 interview with MarketWatch, a company representative stated that ESRI controls almost 90% of the GIS (Geographic Information System) market in Romania.
The GIS market encompasses economic activities related to the production, distribution, implementation, and use of GIS technologies, which enable the creation, analysis, and visualization of digital maps, satellite images, and infrastructure data (such as roads and buildings) as well as topographic data. Governments, public administrations, utility companies, and private enterprises utilize these systems.
In addition to the acquisitions reported by IGSU, we have identified some items that are not included in the table. B.L.U.E. Color SRL provided consulting services valued at 18,000 euros, while Hope Promo SRL supplied promotional materials worth 13,000 euros.
Promotional Materials Valued at Thousands of Euros from a Company founded by a politician
Within the project, several direct acquisitions of customized promotional materials were made. According to information from the public procurement platform, IGSU purchased items including desk clocks, thermometers, radios, mugs, USB sticks, pocket knives, and carry bags – all of which were customized.
These direct acquisitions were made from Hope Promo SRL – formerly known as the Handicap Organization Protecting Equity – SRL. IGSU conducted four separate purchases of the same products within the same month. Hope Promo SRL reported a turnover of over 3.8 million lei and a profit of 400,000 lei in 2024. The company has extensive experience in working with state institutions for promotional materials. It was founded by Ciprian Faraon, a former president of the Sibiu County Patronage of Small and Medium Enterprises, and a candidate for the Humanist Social Liberal Party for the Sibiu City Hall in 2024.
Europa Liberă Romania has reported on Hope Promo’s transactions with the state in this article and another one here.
Ro-Risk and the Bank Loan
In October 2024, IGSU began efforts to update the hardware components and related licenses for the Ro-Risk platform, as reported by the institution’s press office. This update is part of the “Improving Disaster Risk Management” project, which is funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The project involves acquiring updated hardware components and associated licenses for the Ro-Risk platform, with an estimated cost of approximately one million euros. The funding will be sourced from a loan provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and is part of a broader IGSU initiative valued at 92 million euros in total.
IGSU has announced that the terms of reference for the project are currently being prepared, and the tender process is set to be launched in the second half of the year. The Ro-Risk platform is expected to be operational again by 2027.
Dams Under Pressure, Deadlines Missed
Ro-Risk is a state project designed to aid climate adaptation and has gained importance following recent floods. The largest flood risk reduction efforts are part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), specifically under Component 1 – Water Management. Until now, these climate adaptation projects have received little attention.
The National Administration “Romanian Waters” (ANAR) has planned investments totaling 340 million euros for digitization and automation of water storage equipment at existing reservoirs, as well as for the rehabilitation of defense lines, dams, and polders.
However, it’s uncertain whether these projects can be completed by the June 2026 deadline, as many are still in the tendering phase.
Additionally, some of the investments initially proposed under the PNRR have been removed.
“Due to rising construction material and energy prices, along with market blockages characterized by a lack of submitted offers in the public tenders on both the SICAP platform and JOUE in 2023, the PNRR has been renegotiated with the European Commission,” ANAR reported. This renegotiation has resulted in a reduction of 46 million euros from the originally proposed investments for the rehabilitation of dams and polders.
Initial Promises Made to the EU by the Government:
- 510 km of rehabilitated defense lines.
- 30 Documentation for Approval of Intervention Works (DALI) / mixed projects related to the sub-investment of rehabilitating existing permanent reservoirs (dams).
- 20 rehabilitated permanent reservoirs (dams).
- 20 rehabilitated or newly installed polders.
Objectives Remaining After Government’s Renegotiation with the EU:
- 408 km of defense lines.
- 13 rehabilitated dams.
- 13 rehabilitated or newly installed polders.
Given the completion deadline of June 2026, we inquired with ANAR about the impact of ongoing delays in finalizing tenders on project implementation and potential funding risks.
ANAR informed us that, for dike rehabilitation projects – 13 investments identified to achieve a total length of 408 km – only 3 have received approved technical and economic indicators, accounting for 148 km of dikes. For the rehabilitation of existing polders or the installation of new ones, out of 13 projects, only 6 have approved technical and economic indicators, covering the rehabilitation of 8 polders. The remaining projects are currently in various stages of approval.
Regarding the financing contract for permanent reservoir (dam) rehabilitation projects, the public procurement procedures for works, supervision, and audit contracts are currently underway. A works contract for one permanent reservoir (Leșu reservoir in Bihor County) has been signed, and contracts for four additional reservoirs (Gilău reservoir in Cluj County, Surduc in Timiș County, Mărăcineni in Argeș County, and the Mureș River hydraulic node in Mureș County) were expected to be signed by June. Finalization of all works contracts was expected by June 30, 2025, as stated in a letter from Romanian Waters, signed by Director Sorin Lucaci.
Execution contracts for work at two polders (Sălard in Bihor County and Rovinari in Gorj County) have also been signed, with the remaining contracts expected to be finalized by the end of July.
Climate Change Exposes Our Vulnerable Infrastructure
“What happened in Covasna is a warning sign that climate change is increasingly impacting us with severity,” said former Environment Minister Mircea Fechet following the floods in Covasna in May. “Extreme weather events are no longer rare; they are becoming commonplace, and those in vulnerable areas are suffering the most.”
Recent reports indicate that our infrastructure is inadequately equipped to protect us from floods.
An official document outlining the need for investments in water management through the PNRR plan reveals that over 75% of Romania’s reservoirs, constructed before 1990, operate under restrictions. Citing a 2018 World Bank report, the document identifies three major categories of deficiencies that compromise reservoir safety: significant and hazardous infiltrations, sedimentation issues within the reservoirs, and the physical and moral deterioration of hydromechanical equipment.
550,000 People at Risk of Flooding
The report indicates that several reservoirs and polders in Romania urgently require intervention to ensure safe operation and to maintain essential functions, particularly in terms of providing water supply to the population and controlling flood waves. The document highlights significant structural deficiencies in foundations, sealing, drainage systems, and outdated hydromechanical equipment. In the event of incidents or accidents caused by dangerous natural phenomena or exploitation, an estimated 550,000 people are at risk.
Six reservoirs have been identified as needing urgent attention: Siriu in Buzău County, Leșu in Bihor County, Poiana Uzului in Bacău County, Valea de Pești in Hunedoara County, and Dridu in Ialomița County. Among these, only the Leșu reservoir has received funding through the PNRR.
Between 2005 and 2020, there were 2,786 recorded events affecting hydraulic structures, with 42% occurring in the last five years. The document also notes that more than half of Romania’s territory is expected to experience maximum flow rates with a 1% probability of occurrence by 2050, which will be higher than in the period from 1971 to 2000.
Additionally, Romania has experienced one of the highest numbers of flood-related deaths in the EU and has seen significant damage to homes. Approximately 13% of the country’s total land area is considered flood-prone.
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