The Mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, states that the Văcăreşti Natural Park has had a private fire service since the beginning of this month and that a feasibility study for a hydrant system is being carried out.
Also, the main alleys were repaired, which were difficult for emergency vehicles to access.
“The Văcăreşti Natural Park has had a private fire service since the beginning of this month, equipped with a special fire fighting vehicle. We are in the process of carrying out a feasibility study for a hydrant system with a dedicated water reserve, to be able to act quickly and punctually. We also repaired the main alleys that were difficult to access for emergency vehicles or cars performing maintenance work”, the mayor announced on Facebook.
Five days ago, Nicusor Dan specified that the observation pavilions were repaired and fireproofed and that new information panels were installed.
At the same time, a feasibility study was carried out for a video camera monitoring system of the entire park area.
“We want the visitors to the Văcărești Natural Park to be safe and have the most pleasant experiences in this unique place in Europe. We repair and refurbish the ornithological observation pavilions, we installed new informative panels at the entrances to the park, panels about the fauna and flora of the park, garbage cans and ecological toilets. We modernized the guard posts (they are powered by solar energy) and we carried out a feasibility study for a video camera monitoring system of the entire park area”, mayor Nicusor Dan said.
On February 8, 2024, an area of about 6 ha of the Natural Park was destroyed by fire. A new fire affected an area exceeding 10,000 square meters in March this year.
Vacaresti Natural Park, the delta in the middle of Bucharest
Vacaresti Natural Parkis a nature park in the Romanian Capital,encompassing the wetlands surrounding Lake Vacaresti.
It stretches on 190 hectares on an area that used to be a large swampy land on the outskirts of Bucharest. To its west was the area known as the “valley of weeping” that was the rubbish dump of inter-war Bucharest.
The communists during Nicolae Ceausescu’s rule drained the swampy areas, erecting a district of blocks of flats. Ceausescu even wanted to build a reservoir supposed to be filled from the Arges River through the Mihailesti Lake, so a concrete dam was built to encircle the lake, but the plans were abandoned when communism fell.
In 2003, the Ministry of Environment conceded the area to Royal Romanian Corporation for 49 years, for a sum of USD 6 million, for the establishment of a sports and culture complex, in but this plan was also off when the company did not honor its share.
As the area has not been in use for such a long time, wildlife flourished within the confines of the dam. The biodiversity now encountered here is considered by some to be comparable to that of a small river delta.
A 2013 study counted hundreds of species of plants and 96 different species of birds.
In June, 2014, the Lake Văcărești surrounding was declared a protected nature area and named Văcărești Nature Park by the Government of Romania.
Văcărești Nature Park was the setting for Radu Ciorniciuc’s 2020 documentary Acasă, My Home, telling the story of a family that lived in the park for 20 years.
In 2017, Văcărești Natural Park Association set up an eight-kilometer cyclotourism trail in Văcărești Natural Park.