The Ministries of Environment and Water and of Regional Development and Public Works did not respect the extraordinary session of the Municipal Council in Burgas, although it was convened after Emil Dimitrov’s statement in the National Assembly on Friday. Then he announced that in six months there will be a water crisis in Burgas and the local administration is not doing anything about it.
The lack of representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works angered the municipal councilors. Many expressed their outrage because they wanted to ask a number of questions to representatives of both departments. A little earlier, Emil Dimitrov and Deputy Minister Nikolay Nankov were in Burgas, where they held a National Meeting at the District Administration. However, they did not stay for the session of the local parliament.
“There is no representative of the three line ministries. There are accountable departments and maybe that’s why people want the resignation of this government and I can say that absolutely right. We are looking at a brief solution to the problems, and no one is talking about why this is the case today. No one is commenting on what will happen if the drought continues from now on. The very fact that a minister expresses his concerns to the National Assembly is important, that apparently somewhere the ties are broken. We have not received any official answer as to what will happen and why it happened here”, said Zhivko Tabakov of the Citizens’ Movement Bulgaria. Manol Todorov from “Bulgaria Movement of Citizens” was categorical:
“Mr. Nikolov said that the situation is critical and I am, to put it mildly, surprised that the Ministry of Environment and Water did not send a representative to this meeting and we cannot ask questions, but only talk here, colleagues. This is a mockery of the Municipal Council of Burgas.”
“I feel like a spectator who has bought a ticket and the main actor doesn’t have it. There would have been no meeting if it had not been for Mr. Dimitrov’s speech”, said Veselin Prenerov from GERB.
Otherwise, the first speaker during the session was Mayor Dimitar Nikolov. He announced to the councilors the decisions that were taken at today’s National Meeting in the District Administration:
“A few hours ago, the National Meeting in the district administration, convened by the Minister of Environment and Water and the Deputy Minister of Regional Development, ended. One of the main points was the critical situation and the plan that the two ministries presented to us regarding the provision of drinking water without reaching water regimes. In this plan there are clearly defined administrative actions and construction and installation works. I received extremely high guarantees and assurances that absolutely everything necessary will be done and citizens of Burgas will not experience a shortage. This plan concerns the use of two dams in the Burgas region – „Aheloy“ and „Poroy“, which will be provided for management and administration of the regional governor so that he can take a series of actions to ensure the possibility to be reconstructed and build supply water mains. The main contractor is Vik-Burgas. Extremely high expectations are placed on it to be completed on time. In a very short time – by February 20, these water mains must be built, the water towers must be repaired, as well as the completion of the dam walls. This will ensure the provision of additional quantities of water for our region. It also became clear that we are entering a regime in which Kamchia will limit the supply to the northern territories in order to provide additional water for the Burgas region. I thanked him for his regional support at such a critical moment.”
Nikolov criticized Water and sanitation-Burgas because, according to him, there was a lack of active communication between the company and consumers and this created a feeling of discomfort among the citizens of the city. He added:
“If we have to invest in geological research, it will be done immediately, because I do not want to be the mayor of Burgas, during whose term Burgas will be threatened by aridity.”
“The mayor said that the water supply and sewerage system will make the dams tied by February 20. Where will the money come from – from the state or with water and sewerage money? On Friday, Dimitrov said there were problems. The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works replied that he needed a report from the Ministry of Environment and Water, without which the procedures could not start. Is this report ready and if not, when will it be ready? We have to see all the obstacles on the way”, said Deputy Chairman Konstantin Bachiiski from Political party Middle European Class. And added:
“I believe that the citizens of Burgas should know who is responsible for this situation. We are threatened by a water crisis in Burgas for the first time in 30 years and to this day it is not clear who takes responsibility for this situation. It is currently proposed to allocate between BGN 60 and 75 million in order to save some situation that was not foreseen earlier. Many repairs will have to be made for the joining of Poroy and Aheloy. During this time, what will be done so that the available quantities of water in „Kamchia“ do not run out? Is it possible to carry out these construction works in half a year? Where will the money come from and will there be public procurement for spending that money, because I suspect that we will again be in a situation where there is no going back and citizens will again have to swallow tens of millions of their taxes to spend in an opaque way? said Dimitar Naydenov of Democratic Bulgaria.”
The manager of Water and sanitation-Burgas Gancho Tenev assured the councilors that public procurements would be carried out.
In the end, the members of the local parliament adopted a unanimous proposal of Boycho Georgiev from GERB, which envisages sending official inquiries to the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture.
In addition, a proposal by Georgi Sabev from the SEC was approved, which reads as follows:
“We offer a monthly briefing or a written report on the volumes spent by the Kamchia Dam by sectors and on the implementation of measures to overcome the water crisis.”
