River desilting may cause bad smell in downtown Bucharest

The Romanian Waters administration company will start desilting the Dambovita river segment around Unirii Square on Monday, January 8. The process, which may take about 10 days to complete, will cause a negative visual and olfactive impact for people living in the area and those passing by, the company announced on Friday. The desilting operation is necessary because the underground section of the Dambovita river has become clogged, which may cause dangerous situations in case of high water debits. The river, which crosses Bucharest from West to East, goes underground at Unirii Square, where it passes under the Unirii underpass and above the underground line. The bottleneck makes it difficult to naturally clean the alluviums and debris. To desilt Dambovita’s underground section, the national waters administration will dry the river’s sections before and after the Unirii Square. This operation is easier to do during summer, when it’s hotter, but it would also cause extremely bad smell, because of the decaying algae and shells. The authorities hope that the lower winter temperatures will help reduce the olfactive discomfort. editor@romania-insider.com