There is no talk of a water crisis in the country as of today, said Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov after today's second meeting of the National Water Board. In 10 days, the number of people without access to drinking water has halved, BNR said.
Deputy Prime Minister Zafirov summarized that at the moment, the number of people affected by water shortages in the country has decreased from 360,000 to 160,000:
"This, of course, is to some extent due to the rains that fell, but also to the efforts made by the Water Supply and Sewerage Holding, the local Water Supply and Sewerage operators, and the Board - in Pleven, the water supply has been fully restored, and in Lovech, the water supply has been fully restored. This does not mean that the activities have stopped".
Zafirov confirmed previously announced information about the need for 3,700,000,000 leva for urgent repairs to the water transmission network in the country.
As of today, it is also known where the most funds are needed:
"Plovdiv, Burgas, Blagoevgrad. We are talking about literally hundreds of millions, but the figure of 63% average water losses is also confirmed. 53% is the physical loss of water, which is a very large percentage. By the end of this year, 770 million will enter the Water and Sewerage sector, 1 billion and 100 million have been allocated for next year.
There is a big gap between the real needs and what the treasury can provide at this stage, but one of the goals of this Board is to identify the problems. Together with the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly, we will seek a solution to these problems," Atanas Zafirov pointed out.
The news about Breznik is optimistic, said the Deputy Prime Minister - the level of the main water source there is rising by more than 50 cm, the amount of manganese in the water is falling sharply, new drillings have been made, a quick solution to the problem there is expected.
Urgent legislative changes have been identified - in the Public Procurement Act, where disaster situations have been declared: "The use of water from the Danube is also one of the channels through which we will solve some of the problems with the lack of water supply in certain regions of the country," Atanas Zafirov added.
The Water Board already has a website on which all reports and decisions will be publicly available.