"Green Movement" insists on a quick and high-quality revision of the plans for the management of river basins in Bulgaria, reports the party's press center.
On September 30, 2024, the 6-month period for comments on the public consultation for the World Bank's River Basin Management Plans (RBMP) projects for the period 2025 - 2027 expired, and the RBMPs are still in effect at the moment. valid for the period until 2021, states "Green Movement" and points out that the draft water plans of the World Bank have so far been repeatedly criticized. The process of preparing up-to-date plans has been delayed for years, and even in 2022, with an amendment to the Water Act, the deadline had to be officially extended.
The party points out that these plans are important, because they determine where the waters and water basins of Bulgaria are and what the management measures are for ensuring access to their use and protecting their quantity and quality, and recall that this year in the country, 620 settlements with approximately 520,000 inhabitants did not have guaranteed access to drinking water.
An analysis of the "Green Movement", prepared in 2023, shows that part of the damage and victims of the floods in the municipality of Tsarevo is also due to a lack of mapping and planning of the water bodies in the municipality - as they do not appear in PURB, their river terraces are also not reflected as prohibited for construction, as well as the public and road infrastructure is not taken into account with the presence of water bodies. More and more regions of Bulgaria are suffering from both drought and torrential floods. Climate models predict these trends will deepen.
In the future River Basin Management Plans, mapping of all water resources of Bulgaria, means for field and documentary work for them, clear measures of prohibitions and restrictions in their adjacent areas, as well as strengthened control are key to the future of the country, are categorical from the "Green Movement" and note that currently the opinions submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Water are highly negative. The measures proposed for water management at the regional level are important for nature, as it directly affects the health and livelihood of people. The management of the territories of riverside forests and floodplain terraces are under strong economic pressure - for felling, extraction of aggregates, discharge and disposal of waste.
"Green Movement" urges the government to urgently rework the submitted substandard projects, providing reasoned answers and adopting the measures proposed in the submitted opinions by experts. According to them, it is unacceptable that after 4 years of delay and with BGN 24 million spent, Bulgaria still does not have adequate tools - measures for water management and control - with which to protect citizens' health and access to water.
The press release states that the river basin management plans (as well as flood risk) were originally due to come into force in 2022, with the current ones being adopted to run from 2016-2021. Paid for with generous funding from The European Union and with a four-year delay, however, the projects have been heavily criticized. The project BG16M1OP002-1.017-0001-C01 "PURB 2022-202 with beneficiary Directorate "Water Management" and partners basin directorates is financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union under the Operational Program "Environment 2014-2020". and was being implemented with consultancy assistance from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) under an agreement of 2018. Due to the delay, the ZD team at the eco-ministry extended the deadline by one year at the end of 2021, but it is seen that the total delay is for over 4 years, and the quality of the projects is more than low, despite the generous funding - The total value of the project is BGN 24,000,000, of which 85% or BGN 20,400,000 are funds from the Cohesion Fund (CF) of the European Union (EU) and 15% or BGN 3,600,000 are national co-financing.