Bucharest - Romania has banned water intake and fishing on its stretch of the Danube and warned its neighbours that a cyanide spill which killed thousands of fish in Hungary and Yugoslavia is moving slowly downriver.
The Romanian Environment Ministry said the cyanide, which leaked from a Romanian gold mine two weeks ago, reached the reservoir of the Iron Gates hydroelectric plant yesterday and was moving down it at 3 km per hour.
"As a precaution, steps have been taken to ban the use of water from the Danube for drinking and household use, as well as to ban fishing in the Danube," a ministry statement said. The cyanide concentration was expected to drop significantly over the next 24 hours.
"So far there have been no dead fish, birds or other animals," it said, quoting levels of 0.33 milligrams per litre, or 33 times the permitted level, when the spill reached the Romanian section of the Danube early on Tuesday.
The Danube forms Romania's border with Bulgaria over more than 800 km (500 miles) before forking into a delta, one of whose branches marks the border with Ukraine.
The European Parliament voted yesterday to strengthen and accelerate water protection measures which Green Party members say could have helped prevent the Danube cyanide catastrophe.
The parliament voted to tighten European regulations on inland, coastal and underground water, including a total ban by 2020 on releasing chemicals or dangerous substances into water.