The water crisis in the country will continue to deepen, with the peak expected in October, when nearly 10% of Bulgarians may find themselves on a water regime. This alarming forecast was made by the former Minister of Environment and Waters Borislav Sandov on the air of "Bulgaria Morning" on Bulgaria ON AIR.
"Bulgaria is poor in water resources," Sandov stated categorically. He commented that the current difficult situation in Pleven was predictable and he had warned about it many times, but adequate measures were not taken in time. According to him, water management is scattered among different departments, which makes effective decisions difficult.
The former minister criticized the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary committee on the environment, defining it as populism. "The ball is in the court of the executive branch, not the National Assembly," he commented and added that the right committee for this problem is the one on regional development.
Sandov defined the drillings currently being done in Pleven as "palliative measures" that will not solve the problem in the long term. "The workers and experts themselves, who are on the ground and doing these drillings, say that the amount of water that can be extracted from these underground levels is insufficient," he emphasized.
According to Borislav Sandov, the idea of building a "Cherni Osam" dam is unfeasible and populist, as its construction would take more than a decade. Instead, he pointed out that the country should focus on more efficient use of existing resources, including re-categorizing dams that are not currently used for drinking purposes.
"We should also mention the Danube River, because it provides 82% of Bulgaria's water. If we take out the Danube River, we will not only become the poorest country in terms of water resources, but we will also have very little water," Sandov warned. He gave the example of the Razgrad district, which years ago solved its water supply problem precisely by using water from the river.
In the short term, the former Minister of the Environment is pushing for urgent measures against the huge leaks in the water supply network, emphasizing that the losses are covered by consumers. He believes that the current government has not made the water crisis a priority and is acting "firefighter-like" -only after problems arise.