Gabi Sidorenco, fisherman, Sfântu Gheorghe, Danube Delta
The bad part is: when the ARBDD [Administration of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve] was established, it said it would not interfere and would support traditional fishing and the traditions that were in the Delta. It’s not like that. Now they won’t even let us cut the reeds. If you have to go and cut a reed, you need certain approvals. Plus a tax, you have a tax to pay. Plus they force you to make thatched roofs with reeds. First, that it is very expensive. Reeds are very expensive and here it has already become a mafia. So you are not allowed to cut reeds here in Sfântu Gheorghe. You are allowed to cut them in Jurilovca and bring them from there or get them from a company. There’s a company that really selects the reeds, they select them thread by thread, very expensive, a bundle is 5 euros. How much do you need here? You need about 10 bundles per square meter. Do you realize what that means? Plus the thatchers. There are no thatchers anymore. What we have, they are the no real thatchers in this area here. Indeed, a roof like this, thatched properly with reeds, lasted 40 years. Now, at 5-6 years you can already see it leaking, it’s not tightly tied with wire, arranged with a mallet, because that’s how they used to do it. And the angle at which it was thatched was at least 45 degrees. Now they make it like that, flat. It can’t be. That’s kind of the way it is with Delta. Everything is in constant transformation. I mean both naturally and officially.
Delta is beautiful. I wouldn’t leave here, I wouldn’t move to a crowded place, but I’m really upset with what goes through these governors’ heads. The [delta] governors change according to political parties. The parties appoint them. They don’t appoint people who really know what Delta is. They appoint only these party guys, journalists, we have everything, SRI [Romanian Intelligence Service] workers, former SRI employees. Everything. Just for a special pension. They stay there for 3 months, change. In one year you have 3 [delta] governors. What the hell is this?
