The Meteorology Authority has issued an orange code for the Ungheni–Brânza section of the Prut River, where flow has dropped to 25–30% of the long-term average. Upstream, on the Costești–Ungheni section, a yellow code is in effect (30%). On August 26, the Government extended the hydrological alert by 30 days.
On August 7, the court ordered public custody and a five-year entry ban for two citizens of Bangladesh, detained by the Border Police during an attempted illegal border crossing in the Ungheni district area, as part of efforts to counter a network allegedly involving Moldovan citizens as well. It is the second case of this kind reported at Ungheni's border in six weeks. We explain what differs, in law, between illegal border crossing — a crime — and breaching the residence regime, a mere administrative offence, and what comes next for the two.
On 8 July, the town hall of Ungheni signed an agreement with the Institute of Ecology and Geography of the State University of Moldova, on wastewater, ecosystem services and ecological infrastructure. The stake is concrete: the town takes its drinking water from the Prut — for more than 40,000 people — and discharges its wastewater into the basin of the same Prut, through a treatment plant that, according to the town hall's own 2018 strategy, was running on the mechanical stage only. The USM researchers called to Ungheni are precisely the ones who measure how much such a plant degrades the river downstream.
Costuleni mayor Andrei Rudicov and other local leaders from the Ungheni district spent this week in Dorohoi, on a study visit about managing emergencies. It is the “people” side of the same EU project, RiAdapt, that is also funding the reinforcement of the Prut dike in the city of Ungheni.
Ungheni city hall has started work to reinforce the protective dike along the Prut and its tributary, the Delia, in the Ungheni-Vale neighbourhood — the area threatened by Prut floods in 2008, 2010 and 2020. The 2,341 metres of dike will carry a riverfront promenade with walkways, bike lanes and viewpoints over the river. The project is funded by the European Union with a €922,715 grant, through the cross-border Interreg programme, together with the twin city of Dorohoi in Romania.
The government has approved a package that breaks an old condition: support for trafficking victims will no longer depend on their status in a criminal case — assistance comes as soon as there are 'reasonable indications' that a person was exploited. The bill, drafted by the Ministry of Justice to align the law with a European directive due 15 July 2026, now goes to Parliament. Against this backdrop, Moldova remains on 'Tier 2' in the U.S. trafficking report, with 149 victims identified in 2024 — fewer than in 2023. For Ungheni, a border district on the Prut and on the route of work abroad, the real stake is for protection to reach the villages too, where services arrive with difficulty.
Near Buzduganii de Jos, Ungheni district, border police detected seven Bangladeshi citizens who were to be illegally taken across the Prut into Romania. In the operation — coordinated by the Ungheni Prosecutor's Office together with the Border Police and the SIS Antiterror Centre — four Moldovan citizens were detained, suspected of organising the route to the European Union. The migrants reportedly paid about 1,000 euros each.
The village of Sculeni, in Ungheni district, has gained its own official symbols — a coat of arms and a flag, approved by the commune council, endorsed by the National Heraldry Commission and entered in the register by presidential decree in early 2026. On the azure shield, a stone bridge crossed by a horse-drawn stagecoach points directly to Sculeni’s history as a crossing point and customs post on the Prut. The authors are state heraldist Silviu Andrieș-Tabac and Andrei Gaidașenco.
The measure that would allow prepaid SIM cards to be activated only on the basis of an identity document has moved a step further: on 26 June, Parliament voted it through in first reading. It is not yet law — a second reading and a one-year transition still lie ahead. Beyond the phone scams that hit the elderly, Parliament's statement invokes a second reason: anonymous cards used in cross-border smuggling. And Ungheni is the gateway district on the Prut, where real smuggling cases have already turned up seized phones and SIM cards.
