Water rationing in nearly 300 settlements in Bulgaria

In 90% of the districts in the country, there are settlements on partial or full water rationing. The reasons for this are high temperatures and reduced volume in water sources. In almost all reservoirs in the country, the amount of water that enters is many times less than the amount that is released. And so the level of the reservoirs is falling rapidly.

In only 5 of the country's 28 districts, there are no settlements under any form of water supply restrictions. A total of 92 municipalities are experiencing problems with regular water supply for domestic use. The main reason given is high temperatures and drought.

The affected towns and villages total 297. Nearly 400,000 people live in them. According to experts, nearly 15% of the country's population is experiencing a problem with regular and quality water supply. But the problem is not only drought and high temperatures.

In addition to the hot weather and the drought, poor management of water resources are among the leading problems of water shortages.

Georgi Stefanov, climate change expert: "Nearly 400,000 people live in places where some kind of water restrictions - partial or complete – are introduced."

The poor water and sewerage network has been talked about for years, despite billions in investment, but it turns out that the losses are not only from the pipes.

Georgi Stefanov, climate change expert: "We very often call losses and imagine them to be losses from leaks from the water supply network, but in most cases they are thefts that cannot be detected."

Another problem is the scattered responsibility for water reservoirs. Four ministries are responsible in some form for water supply for domestic, irrigation and business use.

"Bulgaria lacks serious attitude to the efficient use of the available resource. The losses in the water and sewerage companies' pipelines, which are extremely old and depreciated, are extremely high," said Petar Dimitrov, caretaker minister of environment and water.

"The water reserve in the dams, which are under the management of a company within Bulgarian Energy Holding and the Ministry of Energy, is 14% lower than the average in the last 5 years," said Vladimir Malinov, caretaker energy minister.

But the problem is not just infrastructure and financing. Nearly half of the sanitary protection zones are not declared as such.

Georgi Stefanov, climate change expert: "This means in practice that anyone in these zones can do whatever they want, mostly logging without regard to sustainable use of ecosystem resources, so that there is enough air and enough water when needed."

However, central and local government are looking at water and wastewater projects and their funding.

"Their projects are mainly in rehabilitation and construction of new infrastructure to reduce the loss of drinking water," said Violeta Koritarova, caretaker minister of regional development and public works.

"The lack of investment in the underground infrastructure of the Irrigation Systems. We, in the Ministry of Agriculture, have prepared a comprehensive strategy," said Georgi Tahov, caretaker minister of agriculture.

Bulgaria has been considered as a country rich in water resources, but if you take the Danube out of the equation, from which very little water is used, the situation changes.

Georgi Stefanov, climate change expert: "And if we take out this large volume of the Danube river from the equation, we actually go from 8th to 28th place in terms of water resources, which makes Bulgaria a water-poor country."

On average, the country's dams have 20% less water today compared to the same period last year.