Residents in the village of Slatina in Karlovo, which was among the villages affected by the terrible floods in September, are still living in fear. In the immediate aftermath of the flood, a host of problems have surfaced that have not been resolved since then, raising concerns among locals that in the event of another similar disaster, the consequences could be even greater. For one or another action to happen, the main driving factor and the one on whom everything depends is the Municipality of Karlovo. It is the institution that prepares the public procurement, does the design for the reconstruction of bridge structures and infrastructure as an assessment. The municipality and the mayor are the ones who, when everything has been prepared, even if there is no money but there is still a costing – to direct their demands to the state. On this occasion, a meeting of the Local Citizens Initiative Committee /LCI/ was organized in the village on April 10. During the meeting, the residents of Slatina summarized their demands in order to remedy all the damages of the flood, namely:
- Restoration of the bridges – the Slatina-Rozino bridge, the bridge at the stop, the bridge at the cemetery park, the bridge of the gypsy ravine, the Slatina-Stoletovo bridge;
- Clearing the Stryama River bed;
- Construction of a safety dike at the Pump Station;
- Construction of strengthening engineering facilities on the bed of the rural ravine within the village;
- Cleaning and strengthening of the remaining ravines;
- Complete restoration of the infrastructure of the entire village;
- Repair of the damage to the stop, replacement of the roof of the administrative building;
- Cleaning of accumulated debris from the cleaned ravines;
- We insist on banning commercial logging in the watershed of the torrential ravines above the village. To allow the population to be given dry mass of wood for household needs again and to renew the afforestation of the forest;
- We insist on information on how the funds allocated to the Municipality of Karlovo by the Interdepartmental Commission for Recovery and Assistance to the Council of Ministers have been spent so far;
- We insist that the entire further restoration process be maximally public, transparent and reasonably spend the public funds provided for the purpose, which necessitates holding public discussions and providing the citizens with full information about all planned actions in advance;
- We insist on receiving answers in due course to all the above-mentioned points as soon as possible.
Eight months have passed since the disaster and almost nothing has been done to remedy the consequences, commented Yordanka Semkova, Chairperson of the Local Citizens Initiative Committee in the village of Slatina, told Iskra.bg. She said:
„Slatina remains in the periphery and we are forgotten by God and the government, but our village is beautiful. It has over 800 inhabitants and we hope to recover it because we will lose the young people who are here. Let us, the inhabitants of the village of Slatina, not continue to feel and feel on our backs the lack of statehood, legality and responsible care for the population. We believe that we live in a civilised and lawful European state. We believe that the first task of every public authority, institution and official is to take care of the protection of the life and health of the population and the state.“
Semkova explained that there was constant conflicting information about the money received in the accounts from the donors, the municipality and the state:
„Chairman of the Karlovo Municipal Council, Donyo Todorov, who was in charge here during the clean-up on behalf of the municipality and I told him – ‘You are only throwing dust in people’s eyes, imitating some work, mocking people’. I told him to make an account – so much money we have received from the State, so much we have spent item by item – for mechanisation, for this, this, this, this, so much left available in the account – and good for you and good for the people information. And why don’t they? Answer – there is none.“
The flood victims received BGN 375 compensation. On this occasion, she called: „Dear members of parliament, when there is a state of emergency and force majeure – disasters and accidents – let this legislation be changed, so that it is not so cumbersome and we have to wait for public procurement and so on. For these 7 full months, we are already in the eighth, orders and contractors were needed – everything should be ready. Let’s see what money is needed and what we have available, because from the parliamentary rostrum Interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev and Regional minister Arch. Ivan Shishkov said that what they wanted from the Municipality has been given so far, but the Municipality told me that there was no money. There should be some Fund. The amount of BGN 375 is ugly and cynical. It needs to be updated.”
The woman is also outraged by the new pedestrian bridges that do not have handrails. And she asked: „How is an elderly man expected to cross them?“
Yordanka Semkova is adamant that nearly 8 months after the floods, the situation in the village of Slatina is still apocalyptic and she and her fellow villagers insist that the municipality and the state listen to them. Otherwise, they are considering going out to protest in the near future and they are calling on all residents and volunteers who have supported them to join their civil demands for the rebuilding of the settlement.
