A vanishing way of life in Danube Delta’s natural paradise

by Mihaela RODINA / Ionut IORDACHESCU
Agence France-Presse

Fisherman Iosif Acsente,74, rows after he installed his fishing nets on Sfantu Gheorghe Danube’s branch in Sfantu Gheorghe village June 17, 2020. – Included on Unesco’s World Heritage list, this natural paradise spread across 58,000 square kilometres hosts over 300 species of bird and 45 freshwater fish species. The village Sfante Gheorghe has lost around 1,500 people since the transition away from communism in the early 1990s and now numbers just some 500 souls. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

SFANTU-GHEORGHE, Romania (AFP) — As the “last rower” left in one of the villages dotting Romania’s Danube Delta, Iosif Acsente is all too aware of how the traditions and vistas of the region are slowly disappearing — an issue brought into sharper relief by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fisherman Iosif Acsente,74, prepares his fishing nets on Sfantu Gheorghe Danube’s branch in Sfantu Gheorghe village June 17, 2020. – Included on Unesco’s World Heritage list, this natural paradise spread across 58,000 square kilometres hosts over 300 species of bird and 45 freshwater fish species. The village Sfante Gheorghe has lost around 1,500 people since the transition away from communism in the early 1990s and now numbers just some 500 souls. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

Acsente has been plying the Delta with his wooden boat for more than four decades now from his home village of Sfantu Gheorghe.

“I know the Danube so well that if you throw me out of a helicopter I’d know where I was”, says Acsente proudly.

But living in a natural labyrinth, accessible only by boat, has its drawbacks.

The old fishery, now abandoned, in Danube Delta couple of miles away from Sfantu Gheorghe village June 18, 2020.  (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

Even though the region has been largely spared the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, residents worry that they may end up beyond the reach of necessary medical care.

“There is a good chance that it will be too late when the rescue boat arrives”, says Acsente.

It is only the latest challenge the modern world has thrown up for the Delta’s fragile equilibrium.

Included on Unesco’s World Heritage list, this natural paradise spread across 5,800 square kilometres hosts over 300 species of bird and 45 freshwater fish species.

A frog sits on a water lily leaf on a channel in the Danube Delta close to the village of Sfantu Gheorge June 18, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

In normal times that makes it a magnet for birdwatchers and other tourists, with locals throwing open the doors of their traditional thatched houses for visitors every summer.

But this year that vital source of income looks likely to shrink drastically in the wake of the pandemic.

The deputy mayor of Sfantu Gheorghe, Aurel Bondarencu, hopes that Romanians might make up some of the shortfall by holidaying in the Delta instead of heading abroad but that would only offer temporary relief from the region’s problems.

Respite for nature

Even “normal” tourism wasn’t without its problems in the time before the virus.

Fisherman Marius,51, drives his motor boat on a channel next to Sacalin island, in Danube Delta several miles away from Sfantu Gheorghe village on June 18, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

Fisherman Marius, 51, relies on tourists eager to discover the canals and ponds in order to make a living.

A yellow water lilly is pictured at a channel leading to Sacalin island in the Danube Delta June 18, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)
A pelican takes off from shallow waters of a channel leading to Sacalin island in the Danube Delta June 18, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

He guides them between the swamps pointing out sights such as yellow water lilies and colonies of pelicans.

But as he slows his boat to avoid disturbing a shag drying its wings in the sun, even he admits the fall in visitor numbers has “given nature some respite”.

A woman drives her bike on the sandy streets in Sfantu Gheorghe village June 19, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

The streets may still be unpaved, covered with fine sand and framed by flower-filled gardens.

But these days the roar of motor boats drowns out the gentle rippling of oars through the water.

Marius frets that the dilapidated cars which have replaced the horse-drawn carts of old “destroy Sfantu Gheorghe just as the boats equipped with powerful engines ravage the delta”.

A reed roof wooden house, a traditional roof for Danube Delta’s region, is pictured in Sfantu Gheorghe village June 18, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

Meanwhile, purpose-built houses have joined the landscape alongside the traditional homestays.

Marius says the increasing noise and pollution in the Delta are not good for the millions of migratory birds which return from Africa each spring to nest in the islets.

As for fish, the other mainstay of the inhabitants’ livelihoods, that too is becoming increasingly scarce.

Perhaps it’s little wonder then that Sfantu Gheorghe is emptying out.

Isolated winters

An abandoned tourist car is pictured in Sfantu Gheorghe village on June 19, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

The village has lost around 1,500 people since the transition away from communism in the early 1990s and now numbers just some 500 souls.

Both Bondarencu’s and Acsente’s children have emigrated, joining millions of their compatriots seeking better lives in the West.

Fisherman Iosif Acsente(L), 74 and his wife are pictured in Sfantu Gheorghe village on June 17, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

“I love everything about this place, but I wouldn’t want my children to stay here because they would be isolated six months a year”, says Bondarencu.

Life has always been rough in the Delta, especially in the cold and windy winters when fog complicates navigation and the Danube freezes over in some places.

Sitting on a small bench in front of his house, retired 75-year-old fisherman Ilie Ignat well remembers spending weeks at a time cut off from the outside world in harsh winters.

His trips on to the Black Sea almost ended in disaster many times but he nevertheless laments the passing of the way of life he grew up with.

“The young people today don’t want to put in the effort,” he says bitterly, adding: “The days of the oars are over.”

Abandoned wood boats are pictured next the harbour of Sfantu Gheorghe village June 19, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

Even Acsente is voting with his feet.

When the weather starts turning later this year he will leave Sfantu Gheorghe behind and move to Tulcea, the nearest big city, for the winter.

The journey there takes four hours — on a passenger boat of course.

People watch the sunrise on the Black Sea in Sfantu Gheorghe village where Danube spills its waters into the sea on June 17, 2020. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

© Agence France-Presse

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