The mayors of the Sofia districts of “Lyulin“ and “Slatina“ got into a dispute about waste management and preparations for the winter season on “The Day Begins” on BNT. Georgi Todorov signaled a worsening crisis with overflowing containers in “Lyulin”, a worrying situation with snow removal and difficult communication with the Sofia Municipality, and Georgi Iliev replied that he has full access to the institutions and is already working on a clear plan for garbage collection and snow removal after December 1.
Georgi Todorov, mayor of the “Lyulin” district: “After some improvement in the situation, we are currently observing its deterioration. Many citizens have reported this to me and I inspected the area myself yesterday. And it turned out that the bins are overflowing again. There are some that have not been emptied for 5-6 days. In this regard, I requested a meeting with the Deputy Mayor for Ecology, Mrs. Bobcheva. We will hold one these days. The situation is very unpleasant. Citizens are already quite nervous."
Georgi Iliev, Mayor of the "Slatina" district: "The experience from "Lyulin" will be useful to us. And even the least of all for the fact that I personally sent several teams from my district to help with the situation in both "Lyulin" and "Krasno Selo". That is, we already have experience there on how to deal with it. To be honest, I don't understand my colleague a bit, why he has to schedule meetings and so on with Mrs. Bobcheva, because every time I've gone, I've found her. Yesterday we had such a meeting. The director of the Sofia Waste Treatment Company, Mr. Savov, was also present at this meeting, with whom we made a clear plan of what will happen from December 1 onwards, when this contract expires."
According to the mayor of "Slatina", the mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, "does not divide mayors, he has proven that so far."
"And in this specific case, I say again, access is absolutely free. Purely as a matter of authority, so far what we have been dealing with is the maintenance of part of the green system. Garbage collection only in and on playgrounds. What we will expand as an activity on the part of the region is to collect the garbage that is around the public transport stops. Because this is quite manual work, it is quite touchy, in the literal sense of the word. And we have 83 stops. Speaking of snow removal, a container with salt must be placed next to each of them. And we have prepared for this, we will purchase such containers. We have made a list of our wishes, i.e. what we need to bring the region to readiness. And this list will be fulfilled. I have officially requested funds, they will be allocated to us this week, so we can make the necessary purchases and the necessary preparations."
The mayor of "Lyulin" wished his colleague from "Slatina" his optimism should not fade, but the reality may turn out to be different and he admitted that there is a problem with communication with the Sofia Municipality.
"Colleague Iliev is wonderful, he has wonderful plans. We had those too. But on the ground things turned out to be a little different. Of course, I don't want to speculate and I hope that there will be no "special attitude" towards "Lyulin" in connection with my leaving one of the parties that Mr. Terziev supports, because that would be quite unpleasant for the citizens of "Lyulin" especially. But the truth is that I am experiencing some difficulties in communicating with the Sofia Municipality and in fact, Mrs. Bobcheva only allows me to have such a meeting with her after prior appointment, of course, because she also has her commitments. We maintain quite intensive contact with the Sofia Inspectorate on the ground in "Lyulin" and for which I really thank them. But I really want to wish my colleague Iliev success, because he will need it. He will see for himself the difficulties he will experience."
Regarding snow removal, Georgi Todorov pointed out that the situation is also very worrying.
"Yes, the situation regarding snow removal is very worrying, since I do not have information, I have again requested through the channel what equipment will be deployed on the territory of "Lyulin" for snow removal, because winter is knocking on our door. I want to emphasize that the "Lyulin" district, like all other districts, does not have the capacity and authority to clean, dispose of garbage, clear snow, etc. Here, the thing that needs to be made clear to the citizens is that I say again, unfortunately, there is no general vision of how we are fighting for our city to be cleaner. Despite the fact that there are no contracts signed. Don't get me wrong, I am far from thinking that citizens' money should be spent just like that and there should be no justified prices for this. But when you enter into such a battle, it seems to me right and imperative, for the sake of the citizens, to be sufficiently resourced so that the citizens do not ultimately suffer from this situation."
The district mayor of "Slatina" also admitted that he was worried, but emphasized that there was no room for panic.
"I don't want to create the wrong impression that I'm not worried… But this is not the time to panic. We shouldn't instill panic among people. What we have to do and what we are doing is real organization. And that's why we are also addressing the citizens. Please collect and separate the waste, and put it in the containers. Thank God, this crisis, small, short-term, which was with the recycling organization, was overcome very quickly. And now we are currently in wonderful talks with them. Even what we are doing as an organization is giving the citizens black bags, free of charge. Everyone can come and collect their household waste in them, so that they can be placed, if God forbid, the bins are full. But we are also working with the recycling organization to give us transparent bags, in which if the bin, the container for separate waste is full, the citizens can put them in them. In other words, we are taking every step in such a way that we are prepared in advance for what awaits us," said Georgi Iliev.