The bank of the Prut in the Ungheni-Vale neighbourhood has gone under construction. On 7 July, Ungheni city hall announced that it had begun reinforcing the protective dike on the Prut and on its tributary, the Delia — a 2,341-metre structure with a double role: to shield from floods an area battered by high water in the past, and to turn the riverbank into a promenade for walks. Mayor Vitalie Vrabie visited the site from the very first day, the local administration says.
This is the visible part of a larger European project, won by the city together with Dorohoi, its twin town in Botoșani county.
How big the dike is and what is being built on top
The reinforced dike will be about 4 metres high and 3.50 metres wide at the crest, according to figures published by city hall. The 2,341 metres are split between the two watercourses: 1,675 metres along the Prut and 666 metres on the Delia section.
The dike crest will hold more than just the embankment. The local administration is announcing a promenade with pedestrian walkways and bike lanes, with viewpoints over the Prut, street lighting, a storm-water drainage system and urban furniture — benches, bins, bike racks and information panels. In effect, the same structure that keeps water away from homes is meant to become a place to stroll along the bank of the border river.
The money: €922,715 from the EU, through a project with Dorohoi
The works are part of the project “Development of capacities for the adaptation and prevention of disaster risks of cross-border cities”, known by the acronym RiAdapt, funded by the European Union through the Interreg NEXT Romania – Republic of Moldova 2021–2027 programme. Ungheni is carrying it out in partnership with Dorohoi, along the strand dedicated to climate-change adaptation and disaster-risk prevention.
For the Ungheni share, the money is mostly European. In a decision from March 2025, the Municipal Council approved an own contribution of €102,523.90, that is 10% of the project budget allocated to the city — which means a total budget on the Ungheni side of about €1.03 million and a European grant of about €922,715, exactly the sum city hall displays as non-reimbursable funding. The rest, including any ineligible costs, falls on the local budget.
The execution contract was signed on 2 June 2026, is worth over 15 million lei and provides for completion within nine months, according to city hall’s communication reproduced by the noi.md portal. The contractor is FRAI CONSTRUCT S.R.L. of Chișinău, a firm with a profile in earthworks and reinforcement, according to the public register of legal entities. On the site billboard, the project is listed with a start date of 1 August 2025 — the point from which the city formed its implementation team, by a mayoral order issued the same day; the actual work on the bank began only this summer.
Why it matters for Ungheni residents
The Ungheni-Vale neighbourhood, the one the dike protects, is precisely the area the Prut has threatened every time it rose. City hall recalls the floods of 2008 and 2010, when the river’s level topped 8 metres on the gauge, and the 2020 flood that reached the floodplain. The danger has not stayed in the past: in the last week of May 2026, torrential rain pushed the Prut and the district’s streams out of their beds, flooded part of Cornova and put pressure on the dikes at Pîrlița, Vulpești and on Lake Delia, where rescuers carried out controlled releases. The very period in which the district was literally under water was also the one in which teams from six countries were rehearsing, on the Prut near Ungheni, exactly this — rescue from floods.
For a border town about 21 kilometres from Iași, the works also carry a purpose beyond defence. A riverbank left until now in neglect, with willows and scrub, is meant to become a landscaped waterfront with a view to the other, Romanian bank — the kind of public space that towns along the Prut have long wanted. That the work is being done shoulder to shoulder with Dorohoi, through a shared European project, adds to the symbolism of a border that, on the paper of projects, behaves more and more like a bridge.
One clarification, to avoid confusion: the 2,341-metre dike on the Prut and Delia is a separate structure from the Lake Delia dam, the hydrotechnical work that was reinforced on its own during May’s flood. These are two different interventions on the same water of the district.
The dike dimensions, the promenade components, the project duration and the non-reimbursable funding come from the official communication of Ungheni city hall. The title, the code (ROMD00386) and the Interreg NEXT Romania – Republic of Moldova funding framework, as well as the partnership with Dorohoi, are confirmed on city hall’s official page. The budget structure — the local contribution of €102,523.90 and the grant of about €922,715 — follows from Decision 3/1 of 21 March 2025 of the Ungheni Municipal Council, published in the State Register of Local Acts. The works-contract date (2 June 2026), the value of over 15 million lei and the nine-month term come from city hall’s communication, reproduced by the noi.md portal. The context of the May 2026 floods was previously documented by Triunghi.md, based on data from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations.