Water crisis in the country, a metropolitan district without heating during the heating season. Should we pray for the winter to rain, but also be mild… Carlos Contrera, a municipal councilor in Sofia from VMRO, speaks to FACTI.
- Mr. Contrera, you are a municipal councilor in Sofia, but also in the leadership of VMRO. For years you have been offering opportunities to improve the work of the Water and Sewerage sector in Bulgaria. Who has heard you and who has not – until now?
- For at least five years, we have been repeating from VMRO that a water crisis is coming, and the state of the water supply sector as a whole is deplorable. The last major water supply projects were in 2020-2021, when serious funds were allocated to municipalities. Since then, almost nothing has been done. The biggest culprit for the water crisis is the state, which, due to negligence, stupidity and corruption, is wasting water resources. For years, some water supply systems have been in collapse - technical, technological, financial. You cannot have 60-70-80% total water losses and claim that you are supplying water to the population. There seems to be no audibility for the proposals. Here, the simplest and most logical thing, we brought it to the Council of Ministers from VMRO - to gather the chief engineers of all water supply systems, each to indicate which are the problem areas, what measures should be taken, to have these experts discuss the technical solutions among themselves. It is logical. Experts have something to say and give us solutions. After taking the measures, let's measure how much the losses are, what the effect is. At the moment, there is a feeling that politicians are expected to give technical solutions, which is absurd. Politicians must provide the conditions - a legal framework, creating an organization, financing, and experts are the ones to say which sections to repair, how to repair them, which pumps, thrusters to replace, etc. There are a bunch of projects for drinking water dams - we need to be clear and give impetus to these projects to get going, i.e. to start designing at least. Political will is needed here - not something else.
- We have a water regime in Pleven and Lovech, but we are already ready to accept the euro … How does that sound?
- We are a wonderland. That is why we are in such life paradoxes. The water crisis in Pleven and Lovech has been looming for years. Have measures been taken - no. And now we are reaping the fruits of managerial negligence and corruption. Underground construction and underground infrastructure are the most frequently stolen because it is not clear what is happening below. An example of this are the so-called water cycles in cities and villages, where the pipes are supposedly changed, but still there is either no water, or no pressure, or the water is of poor quality... Whether we are ready for the euro is another topic. I think we are not - public finances are in shambles, we have nearly 800,000 energy poor people in the country, our average purchasing power is far from the levels of the countries in the Eurozone.
The political class may be ready for the euro, but not the people.
I predict chaos and institutional collapse after January 1, 2026, because the institutions are ready for the introduction of the euro on paper, according to documents, but in fact no one knows what they are doing and what to do.
- A National Water Board has been established. How much water do you expect this board to create, to produce, in order to fill the dams in our country…
- This is a political body, not an expert one. I have no particular hopes that anything substantial will be done. They may surprise us, right. If political and managerial will is shown, some water supply projects could be launched, which would be good. We have examples of similar structures over the years, we had BORKOR, etc. What was the effect? But let's give them a chance anyway, if they listen to the experts, they might just unclog some processes. They could speed up, for example, the desperately needed repairs to the Ogosta Dam and the Beli Iskar Dam. They keep getting postponed, apparently because there is no will, but they are urgent, urgent. The Ogosta Dam is key for the Northwest.
- You are talking about creating a State Fund for Investments in the Water Supply and Sewerage Network. Which institution, which ministry is responsible for the Water Supply and Sewerage Network. Can you name it?
- VMRO has been proposing the creation of such a fund for years as an instrument for financing only water supply projects, drinking water projects. The idea is to function like the Road Safety Fund, i.e. targeted, only for water supply projects. The funds can come from the budget, from water abstraction fees, investment loans, etc. The fund reviews the projects, removes the remarks, determines which projects are priorities and finances them. Here we are not talking about replacing pipes in cities and villages, but about repairing and reconstructing main water mains, pumping stations, drilling, drinking water treatment plants, repairing dams, and so on. Currently, the MRDPW, the MOEW, the MH, the NEK, the KEVR and other structures are involved in water resource management.
- Isn't the problem in this blurring of responsibility…
- It blurs, but also blocks the processes in an endless coordination. Years pass, the situation gets out of control in places. It is a matter of management and legislative decision to clearly change the hierarchical structure of responsibility. Who should be the leader, who should be responsible, that must be decided by the legislator. Now the MRDPW is responsible for the water supply networks, for the facilities, the MOEW is responsible for the water bodies, for the resource. This dualism can easily be resolved with an internal restructuring of the ministries, but I don't see how it will be done, because there are too many interests and no one wants to give themselves the perimeter that they have fenced off. This is the objective truth and we need to tell it to each other.
- Many experts are talking about major repairs to drinking water dams. And money…
- Money can be taken from the state budget at the expense of wasting money on digitalization, administration. From water abstraction fees, from investment loans. BDB could finance municipal water supply projects. There are options, there is no will.
- And let's talk about other water - hot water. Which will probably be missing in “Druzhba“ 2 by the end of the year. Why does “Toplofikatsiya“ Sofia surprise the capital's residents every year - with a bill, with repairs…
- Toplofikatsiya-Sofia is deliberately kept by the state in the position of a sick person. Instead of antibiotics, we treat bacterial infections with ibuprofen. The network is outdated, in places extremely worn out, not to mention dangerous. As we know, every year there are problems with the heating supply not only in “Druzhba“, but also in “Mladost“, the “Iztok“ district, etc. Investments are needed, but on a large scale, and not to replace 4-5-10 km. of pipes per year.
Heating is in a normative and regulatory trap.
The state is completely legally draining it through Bulgargaz and BEH. I have spoken about this many times. There is no political will to change this through the Energy Law.
- Then?
- I think that, since we will obviously work within such a framework, the state should take over “Toplofikatsiya“ -Sofia through debt for property, transfer the ownership to them and the decisions should be in the hands of the one who holds the knife, the stick, and the bread, figuratively speaking. Your expenses cannot be 1000 leva, they pay you a salary of 700 leva, and you should not get bogged down in borscht. So the cardinal decision is for the state to acquire “Toplofikatsiya“. I was very unpleasantly impressed by the superficial statement of the Minister of Energy Zhecho Stankov, who plays the registrar, but does not make decisions.
- There were already committees on the topic in the municipality. Has anyone answered the simple question - why repair at the beginning of the heating season, and not in the summer?
- Commissions in the municipality are sick. The modern Gankino cafe. Some great stories are told, the same thing is going on, but no decisions are made. For two years I have been listening to how analyses will be made in this mandate. “Save Sofia“ will do an analysis, PP-DB will do an analysis, Terziev will do an analysis. There is an approved report by the consultant “Black and Veitch“ from the last mandate, it says what needs to be done to reconstruct the network. Don't we know that the boilers need to be replaced? They have clearly crossed it out. Now they will start from scratch. It is not serious. That is why I say that “Toplofikatsiya“ It should become state-owned, then there will be a single leadership, the one who determines the regulatory framework will also manage the company technologically.
Now the state provides you with the framework, sells you natural gas under an unprofitable contract, charges interest for something that is not even consumed, and then tells you - pay, give me money...
I would also raise the topic of energy-poor heating consumers in Sofia - there are pensioners, there are disabled people, working poor. How does the state compensate them so that they can pay for their heating in the winter? They have no money for food, they will pay for heating. And a vicious circle of indebtedness results...
- What did you hear from the management of “Toplofikatsiya“ - how will they do the repairs, what decision did they make…
- We are faced with two options - the first option is that "Toplofikatsiya" does nothing, the second option is that "Toplofikatsiya" carries out repairs in stages. In the first option, we risk many and serious accidents during the heating season. In the second - a staged shutdown of hot water and heating and again inconvenience for the residents. This is the situation and it is unpleasant, whichever option is adopted. Otherwise, "Toplofikatsiya" is once again acting like a bull in a glass shop. They messed things up purely organizationally and communicatively. This is not how it is done. This planned repair should have been communicated much earlier, a clear schedule should have been announced, meetings should have been held with the house managers. The stages should have been clearly announced, and not the bombastic 90 days. From a technological point of view, the need is clear, but the creation of an organization was marked by omissions. Let it be a lesson to them and not be repeated.