A 16-year-old boy from Ungheni district has drowned at Măcărești, in a place where bathing is forbidden. The case, reported by the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (IGSU), is the first in a string of three drowning deaths in three days in the Republic of Moldova — two of the dead are minors, and all three tragedies happened in unsupervised spots. Since the start of the year, the toll has climbed to 31 people drowned, 7 of them minors.
What happened at Măcărești
According to IGSU, the call to the 112 service came in on the evening of 26 June 2026, around 18.08. The 16-year-old was bathing with several friends outside the village of Măcărești, in a zone where bathing is forbidden, when he began to show signs of drowning. A team of divers from the Ungheni rescue and firefighters unit responded. The boy’s body was found about 30 metres from shore.
IGSU does not specify which body of water it was — the release speaks of a “forbidden bathing zone” outside the village. Triunghi.md does not publish the victim’s name and does not seek information about the identity of a deceased minor.
Three deaths in three days, all in unsupervised water
The Măcărești death was not the only one. Over the same period, IGSU documented two more cases, in other districts, but with the same common denominator: water without supervision.
On 27 June, at Cârpești in Cantemir district, a 13-year-old girl drowned in an inflatable pool set up right in the household yard. According to IGSU, the child had entered the water without her parents’ consent and was pulled out by her father. The next day, on 28 June, near the village of Ciolacu Nou in Fălești district, a 43-year-old man drowned in an improvised dam-type basin near a river; before entering the water he had reportedly drunk alcohol, and he was pulled to shore by locals.
None of the three deaths happened in an arranged place, with a lifeguard. The lesson the authorities keep repeating is exactly this: the danger does not depend on the size of the water — a child can drown even in an inflatable pool in the yard, if left unsupervised for a moment.
The toll climbed to 31 in ten days
The figures show how heavily this summer weighs. On 19 June, when IGSU launched the summer-season prevention campaign, the toll stood at 18 people drowned since the start of 2026, two of them children. Ten days later, on 29 June, IGSU is already speaking of 31 people drowned, 7 of them minors — 13 more deaths, five of them children, in a very short span.
For comparison, across all of 2025, 56 people drowned in Moldova, 12 of them children. By mid-summer, 2026 has already passed half that annual figure.
Four days after the patrols on the Prut
For the people of Ungheni, the Măcărești tragedy has a particular context. It came just four days after the Ungheni district Emergency Situations Commission ordered, on 22 June, joint patrols by police, firefighters and the border police in the bathing areas along the Prut, including at weekends, precisely to keep people away from unsupervised spots. And five days after the municipality of Ungheni opened, on 21 June, its two lifeguard-staffed beaches — on the Prut River and on Lake Delia.
Except the 16-year-old was at neither of them, but in a forbidden zone outside the village. It is exactly the risk the authorities flag year after year: in a country with only around 19 lifeguard-supervised beaches, almost all drownings happen where there is no one to come to the rescue. How many drowning cases occurred in 2026 in Ungheni district specifically is not publicly known — the figure exists in a note by the Ungheni Emergency Situations Directorate, but it has not been made public.
What IGSU asks for
The recommendations stay the same, but are repeated after every death: bathe only in specially arranged, lifeguard-supervised places; do not enter the water while intoxicated or in unknown areas; do not jump in unchecked spots; do not use air mattresses or rings on lakes and rivers. And children must never be left unsupervised near water — even an inflatable pool in the yard. At any sign of danger, IGSU urges calling 112 immediately.
The circumstances of the three deaths, the dates of the incidents and the 2026 drowning toll come from the press release of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, confirmed by independent national outlets (ProTV Chișinău, Realitatea.md). The safety recommendations belong to IGSU. The local context — the patrols ordered by the Ungheni district Emergency Situations Commission on 22 June and the opening of the lifeguard-staffed beaches on 21 June — comes from Triunghi.md’s earlier coverage and from the official acts cited. Triunghi.md does not publish the name of a deceased minor and does not seek information about their identity.