Floods threaten Romania’s Praid salt mine, key tourist and health site

Flooding endangers both the mine’s salt production and visitor areas

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Severe flooding in central Romania has forced the closure of the Praid salt mine, one of Europe’s largest and most visited salt reserves, as rising waters threaten to destroy a site that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.

Local officials said the worst floods in three decades in Harghita county have caused a nearby stream to overflow, partially flooding the mine. Authorities fear the damage could devastate tourism in Praid, a town economically dependent on the salt mine.

Laszlo Nyagrus, the town’s mayor, said miners have evacuated equipment and are now working to save a separate section of the mine that remains untouched.

“They are trying to save this area, these galleries, by building so-called sluices and dams to protect it,” Nyagrus said. “So that at least this part … will not be damaged.”

Praid’s salt mine, known for its vast underground galleries carved in salt, features a chapel, an adventure park, and a medical centre specialising in respiratory treatments. The site welcomes around half a million visitors each year.

“A problem with the salt mine can have catastrophic consequences for the entire region,” said Csongor Zsombori, head accountant at the Praid branch of the National Salt Company SA., which partially owns the mine.

The mine produces between 70,000 and 100,000 metric tons of salt annually, but it is its tourism and health services that are most vital to the local economy. Officials are now looking for ways to retain visitors despite the closure.

“We need to look at what can be done very quickly in the tourism sector,” Nyagrus added, “what opportunities can be explored or should be explored, so that we can retain as many tourists as possible in Praid.”