Serbia has failed to take the action needed to control an oil spill that has polluted large swathes of the Danube River, the Romanian government charged yesterday. In a letter to Serbia’s Agriculture, Forests and Water Ministry, Romanian Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu “strongly condemned” the fact that Bucharest was not informed of the spreading pollution, a ministry statement said. Barbu said the Serb authorities had not “intervened to limit the effects of this pollution and recalled that this was the third such incident (on Serbian territory) to which the Romanian officials were not alerted.” The Romanians said the spill came from oil installations in Prahovo in eastern Serbia. Serbia acknowledged yesterday that at least part of the spill had come from an oil depot on Prahovo.
(AFP)