The chairman of Izpravi se.BG Maya Manolova took part in a meeting of the legal committee of the Shumen municipal council, which discussed the approval of a memorandum for the construction of a waste processing plant in exchange for receiving 60 acres of municipal land free of charge in the city's Industrial Park.
“Tomorrow they will ask you how you chose this particular company. A company that was registered six months ago with 1,600 leva in capital and which has only one preliminary franchise agreement with a German company. This agreement may not even be finalized,” Manolova warned the members of the commission.
She recalled that this scheme is very similar to the intention of the former mayor of Shumen to build a private waste incineration plant in Divdyadovo in 2020.
“Then, together with the citizens, we fought against this scam, which would have poisoned the air of Shumen residents. Even then, we asked a question: why does the Shumen Municipality not take action to build its own waste separation plant. Even more so given the absurd situation in which Targovishte deposits its household waste in Shumen, because Targovishte has its own separation plant” - added the chairman of Izprav se.BG.
Manolova undertook that the parliamentary group of the United Left is ready to insist on national funding for the construction of such a facility, as well as to ask the Ministry of Environment and Water whether there are still opportunities for free European funding.
She gave the example of the Municipality of Silistra, which will receive 8 million leva, allocated in the State Budget, for this purpose.
“It can be seen from the website of the German company that it deals entirely with the production of biogas from organic waste and has no experience with the processing of mixed household waste,” Manolova noted.
The former ombudsman expressed his concerns that the construction of such an installation would lead to serious air pollution and therefore presented the mayor of Shumen with a gas mask.
“I have seen operating biogas installations and I tell you that 2 km from them there is a terrible smell. That is why there were protests against these installations”, commented Manolova.
After the speech of the chairman of Stand Up.BG, the decision was rejected by the municipal councilors with only 1 vote in support of the memorandum.