The only bright spot in the water projects in Bulgaria that are funded by the EU’s Environment programme is that the construction of a sewage and water treatment plants and system in several key resorts in the country are to be launched.
On August 7 an agreement on treatment and disposal of waste water from agglomerations Nessebar – Sunny Beach – Ravda was signed. The project is for BGN95.8 million, and it is estimated to affect 220,000 people along with tourists in the summer. Thus it fits in the indicator EUR500 per person, but for it there has been no contractor company selected that also puts it in the list of risky ones.
The situation is similar with the second largest investment in the water sector at the seaside – Sozopol Municipality for over BGN77.3 million. Mayor Panayot Reyzi who suting the elections in 2011 moved into the ranks of GERB party, claimed a total of 80,000 holidaymakers a day. A check at the local plumbing company showed that in the peak of the tourist season there are not more than 40,000 people. According to statistics, below 10,000 live in the town. Even with a population exceeding 40,000 Sozopol exceeds the indicator EUR500. No contractors have been selected.
Another major project for the water sector is for the agglomeration Primorsko-Kiten. It’s about for BGN42.4 million, and this amount should provide adequate water services to 120,000 people who live and go on vacation in the two summer resorts. This project meets the indicator EUR500.
Resort Golden Sands also took BGN48 million to modernize its wastewater treatment plant. Unlike the rest of its counterparts, the Mayor of Varna Kiril Yordanov, who in the last elections also went to GERB, indicated that the average number of holidaymakers there is a modest 14,000 people a day. A total of BGN32 million were given for the water treatment plant in the neighbouring resort Albena, where tourists are 13,500.
Seven hundred million levs are allocated to municipalities for marine infrastructure for wastewater treatment. By removing nitrogen and phosphorus and application of deep discharge, Bulgaria will stop the pollution of the Black Sea, said Environmant Minister Nona Karadzhova at the signing of the biggest contract with Nessebar and Sozopol on August 6. It is however too early to say whether her promise will be fulfilled.
The largest ski resort also managed to rank among the privileged few. The municipality run by former MP George Ikonomov agreed two months ago to nearly BGN90 million under Environment. According to the last census in Bansko there are about 13,000 people. The resort town says that in winter all the tourists expand the population to 50,000 people. The actual construction there has not yet begun.
