Since the start of 2026, 18 people have drowned in the Republic of Moldova, two of them children — a toll the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU) cited when it launched, on 19 June, the national summer-season campaign to prevent drownings. Three days later, Ungheni District drew its own conclusions: on 22 June, the district Commission for Emergency Situations (CES) ordered a set of measures for the banks of the Prut and the district’s water basins.
The most visible decision: joint patrols. The Ungheni Emergency Situations Service, the Ungheni Police Inspectorate and the West Regional Directorate of the Border Police will run information actions, prevention measures and patrols in the water-basin areas near the Prut river — including on days off and holidays — to limit people’s access to places not arranged for swimming.
What mayors must do
The commission tasked the district’s mayors with examining the water basins on their territory, limiting access to places not arranged for swimming, installing and maintaining warning signs forbidding swimming in unauthorised spots, and running information campaigns — with an emphasis on supervising children over the summer. The same safety and warning requirements fall on the owners and holders of water basins in the district.
The Ungheni Education Directorate, schools and holiday camps will train children and young people in preventing accidents on the water.
The finding behind the decision: the rescue post isn’t up to standard
One point of the decision concerns the municipality directly. Ungheni City Hall is required to bring the operation of the municipal water rescue post in line with Government Decision no. 409/2022 — that is, to provide staff with distinctive uniforms, fill the personnel roster and equip it with the necessary means of intervention. The wording of the decision indirectly shows that the post is not yet operating at the parameters the law requires.
How many incidents occurred this year in Ungheni District itself does not appear in the decision: it refers to an information note from the Emergency Situations Service (no. 450 of 18 June 2026), which is not public.
Four mayoralties sent back to redo their funding requests
At the same meeting, the commission examined the requests of four mayoralties seeking money from the emergency reserve fund: the village of Cornești, the village of Chirileni, the commune of Măcărești and the village of Măgurele. The decision: the files do not comply with the Regulation on managing emergency funds (Government Decision 862/2015) and were returned. The mayors must redo the document sets — after first receiving methodological support from the Ungheni Emergency Situations Service — and submit them to the commission again.
What exactly the four localities were requesting the money for is not specified in the decision. The CES decisions (no. 8/E/1–8/E/4 of 22 June) are signed by Ion Poia, head of the Ungheni Territorial Office of the State Chancellery, and published on the official page of the Ungheni District Council.