People without permanent access to drinking water in the country have halved in the last ten days - from 310,000 to 160,000 people. This became clear after the second meeting of the newly formed National Water Board.
According to the chairman of the board, Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, this is due to both the rains that fell and the efforts of the water supply companies and local authorities.
“We cannot talk about a water crisis in Bulgaria, especially as of today”, said Zafirov.
He specified that the water supply in Pleven and Lovech has been fully restored. The news for Breznik is also optimistic, where the level of the main water source has risen by over 50 centimeters, and the amount of manganese in the water has dropped sharply.
The main cause of the crisis, according to the board's conclusions, is due to several factors. Along with climate change, a key problem is the poorly functioning and heavily depreciated water transmission network. The average water losses for the country are 63%, of which 53% are physical losses due to old asbestos-cement and corroded metal pipes.
Both short-term and long-term measures will be taken to solve these problems. By the end of the year, 770 million leva will be invested in the water and sanitation sector, and 1.1 billion leva has been allocated for the next one. Zafirov thanked the members of parliament for the quick response in providing additional funds for Pleven through restructuring the state budget, which will be heavily invested in the local water and sanitation network.
The National Water Board now also has a functioning website, where citizens can familiarize themselves with all decisions and reports. The report from today's meeting will be uploaded by the end of the day and sent to the National Assembly, in accordance with the parliament's decision to report the chairman of the board monthly.
An interdepartmental group has also been established to identify gaps in the legislation and propose rapid changes to accelerate procedures in disaster situations.
The National Water Board was formed by a decision of the Council of Ministers with the main task of coordinating the actions of all institutions to overcome the water crisis. The Chairman of the Board is Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Zafirov, and the Ministers of Environment, Regional Development, Finance, Energy, Agriculture, Health and Economy participate in it.