Romania has made great economic and social strides over the last several decades This progress has helped boost livelihoods throughout the country – which now counts itself among the 28 member states of the European Union (EU) The country’s agriculture sector is dominated by small farms – the vast majority of which do not have proper controls to help lower nitrate emissions from manure and other waste containing high amounts of nitrates The combination of a large number of farms and poor livestock management creates both health and environmental conditions impacting the well-being of people across the country.  However, under the World Bank-supported Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project rural communities around the country are being equipped with new tractors and other essential tools needed to improve livestock manure management and prevent nitrates and other dangerous minerals from contaminating Romania’s soil and water supplies farmers were taking manure directly to the fields,” says Georgian Aricisteanu a Water Management official for the Targsoru Vechi Commune “That was very harmful for underground water since all the nitrates were leaking into the ground making it very harmful for the drinking water” Aricisteanu says Approximately 30,000 small farms in about 100 communes will benefit from the pollution control project in terms of support in manure collection and composting facilities and/or sewage and wastewater treatment.  Marian Puric is a farmer and one of the beneficiaries of the Romania Integrated Nutrient Pollution Control Project To help bolster the sustainability of this work the project is also financing several trainings meetings and public consultations to make the public better aware of the benefits of proper handling of livestock waste and other activities a cattle and dairy farmer in the village of Ozun says that thanks to the nutrient pollution control project people’s attitudes have changed in rural Romania consequently making the area a safer place to live for everyone-adults “People were first reluctant to use the manure platforms and due to the fact that they have limited income and that the price of milk dropped,” says Kese they started using the platforms,” he says STAY CURRENT WITH OUR LATEST DATA & INSIGHTS You have clicked on a link to a page that is not part of the beta version of the new worldbank.org we’d love to get your feedback on your experience while you were here Will you take two minutes to complete a brief survey that will help us to improve our website Thank you for agreeing to provide feedback on the new version of worldbank.org; your response will help us to improve our website Thank you for participating in this survey Your feedback is very helpful to us as we work to improve the site functionality on worldbank.org