Maya Manolova is in Burgas to submit a request to the water supply company for non-increase in the price of water.
At the same time, representatives of „Stand Up.BG“ also sent a signal to the Administrative Prosecutor’s Office with a request to appeal the decision of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation to increase the price of water in the district from BGN 2.76 to BGN 4.39 per cubic meter.
„One request is to the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office, because only the prosecutor’s office is the authorized body to bring the illegal increase of water to court, and all other complaints and actions of the mayor of Burgas and other mayors from Burgas Region are a blow to the empty space, because after them absolutely no legal consequences will arise. I assume that the mayor of Burgas has his lawyers and they certainly told him that there is no way to correct his behavior, namely the consent of the Municipal Council and then the lack of objection to the increase in the price of water with a complaint to the court, because the mayors and citizens are not authorized persons who can appeal the increase in the price of water, who can attack the decisions of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission. Unfortunately, citizens have been reduced to service payers – water, heating, electricity, natural gas. The only ones who can appeal are the energy and water companies themselves, but why would ViK-Burgas want to attack the price of water in court? And the prosecutor’s office, which can file a protest“, explained Manolova.
The one report we are submitting is to the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office, Manolova pointed out. According to her, in it they presented considerations of the illegality of the decisions of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation and of this drastic increase in the price of water in Burgas with the highest percentage. She added:
„The analysis shows that for the two 5-year periods from 2015, when GERB’s water reform came in, to 2026, when it is the next period that this price is now set, the value of water rose by 139%, while time, water losses remain the same as they were in 2015 – 54% water losses against a 140% real increase in the price of water and against BGN 680 million investments. Here the question arose as to how adequately and correctly, responsibly the water supply company itself is managed, after resorting to such a drastic increase in the price of water, in order to carry out obviously necessary investments, which the municipal councils and mayors have agreed to. Here we have indicated many other violations, things that were not observed in the business plan and in the request to increase the price of water.”
The platform claims that they were the only civil organization with an active position against the increase in the price of water in Burgas during the the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation public discussion.
One of the violations is that the citizens were not informed at all about the upcoming increase in the price of water, Manolova pointed out.
The second signal is a request, to which the citizens of Burgas have also joined, to Vic the company of the Water and Sewerage-Burgas, commented Manolova. According to her, this is the only workable solution, namely that VK-Burgas does not benefit from the marginal price that the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation has determined for it.
“If the mayor wants to clear his guilty conscience, he could join the pressure together with the citizens of Burgas and the entire region so that the company does not ask for 59% more expensive water. It can ask for 10%, 20%, and it can even postpone this water increase at all until at least the New Year or at least in the time of the most severe economic and social crisis, when people cannot pay these household bills”, she pointed out.
