Access to water for the Danube fishermen
Supplying drinking water and domestic water to the fishermen’s huts in the Danube Delta, without changing the environment
Location of the mission
Romania, Crisan, Danube Delta
Date of the project
September 2018 – 2019
Beneficiaries
Fishermen from the Danube Delta
Partners
Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association, Romania Apele Unite, European Union (Social Challenge)
Context and issues
The Danube Delta is the best-preserved protected zone in Europe. It spreads throughout two countries and ends in the Black Sea in Romania. The Danube Delta is a vast humid land with lakes, ponds, creeks, and channels; it includes natural zones where no economic activities can take place, ecological rehabilitation zones, zones where economic activities are authorised, and buffer zones where eco-tourism is being developed. Due to its ecological importance, the economic and social challenges the region is facing, require a specific sustainable development strategy.
Access to drinking water and bathrooms is thus a real development issue on which the sustainability of economic activities (traditional fishing) and eco-tourism depend.
The project aims to equip the zone with access to drinking water and a dry toilet cabin, without these installations having an impact or the environment or causing visual pollution.
This would be in line with minimum sanitary standards, improving the living and working conditions of fishermen. This would also improve the accommodation conditions for tourists. The project is funded and implemented within the framework of the Social Challenge of the European Union.
Project History
The intervention
InovaYa is in charge of scaling and installing a water purification system which operates as a low-tech (ram pump, no electricity on-site), without any consumable, and which does not release any chemicals in the environment.

October 2018
Exploratory mission
A one-week field investigation by two InovaYa engineers, with the goal of choosing the installation zone and delivering a diagnosis for scaling the intervention (technical investigation and assessment of needs).

NOVEMBER 2018
Choosing the site
The equipment will be installed at Crisan, on a floating fisherman’s hut.

January 2019
Preliminary work
Site development for the pre-installation of the filtration system (installing a tank, laying a slab and building a protective dam)

February 2019
Developing a filtration system
Specific design, integrating environmental constraints, adapting the system, integrity testing

February 2019
Installation
Installation of the filtration system
About the association
Ivan Patzaichin Association
The Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 association campaigns for the preservation of living zones in the Danube Delta (protected natural habitats), and for prizing their inhabitants. The association implements sustainable projects for promoting local development and eco-tourism.

About the association
Ivan Patzaichin Association
The Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 association campaigns for the preservation of living zones in the Danube Delta (protected natural habitats), and for prizing their inhabitants. The association implements sustainable projects for promoting local development and eco-tourism.

Other projects
