The lack of care by municipal enterprises is the main reason that presupposes aridity and the water regime in various settlements in the country. The municipalities are responsible for providing drinking water and maintaining the water supply infrastructure. I.e. the municipality provides this right to each of us, namely the right to access clean drinking water.
This is what FOCUS, the co-chairman of the political party "Green Movement" said. Thomas Belev.
440 settlements in Bulgaria suffer from drought. Between 6 and 7 thousand people enter the water regime every day, he added, noting that the problems are old, but what the state creates as a rule does not create a guarantee for the provision of drinking water, giving an example that from 2007 until now, at least 20 municipalities have not solved their problems with water leaks.
Problems with aridity affect in most cases settlements that do not depend on dams, but depend on some 8,000 water sources or wells, boreholes and drains, which are located closest to the surface, the expert further explained, adding that the problem in Bulgaria is that "only when there is a lack of water in a populated place, only then do they start cleaning the relevant wells, drains or boreholes, fix them in some way, seek to increase the water, fix the lifting facilities. This means that over the years no one cared.“
Another key problem for him is that 10% of settlements in Bulgaria do not have a water supply operator, which, according to him, is a direct violation of the Drinking Water Directive. "The water management system as designed is not working,” he is categorical.
The appeal of the "Green Movement” is for the citizens to be active and express their dissatisfaction with the situation that has arisen, in order not to allow the neglect of the problem by the local and central authorities, added Toma Belev. "When we require them to fulfill their obligations under the law, when citizens come out to protest, it shows that there is a problem. And the citizens must be active, demand that the mayors announce a water supply regime, because when we don't have an official order, the problem actually hides – he hides and stays for the next year, for the next drought.“
According to Toma Belev, one of the solutions is to look for new sources of water supply, even for those municipalities that do not have a problem with water. Investment should also be made in declaring and establishing sanitary protection zones around water sources to better manage water supply systems.