Twenty underground water facilities in the country are already equipped with multi-parameter probes for automatic measurement of physico-chemical indicators. Both local storage of the measurement data from the multiparameter probes and their transfer to a remote computer - server has been enabled. Access to the relevant data generated in real time will be provided to each of the water and sewerage companies.

The installation of the probes is the final stage of Activity 3 under the project “Improving the monitoring of the chemical composition of groundwater”. The project is funded by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union and national funds through the Operational Program “Environment 2014-2020”. The beneficiary of the project is the Executive Agency for Environment. The probes will be operated by 14 water supply companies throughout the country.

The ribbon of the reconstructed and equipped 20 groundwater facilities was cut yesterday in the village of Samoranovo at the site of the “Kupishta” catchment  by the manager of Waterworks - Dupnitsa Krasimira Ivanova, the mayor of Samoranovo Raicho Tsvetkov, and the project manager and head of the “Water Monitoring” department at the Executive Agency for Environment Velcho Kuyumdzhiev.

The Agency also indicated that additional mobile equipment for measuring the content of manganese, iron, ammonium ions, and sodium has been provided for 7 of the 20 renovated facilities - monitoring points.

“This project is the first step for modernizing the underground water monitoring networks in our country. As a result of the project activities, the accessibility and the possibility for conducting water monitoring have been improved,” said Mr Kuyumdzhiev during the opening ceremony.

“A total of 20 sites were rehabilitated under the project. Multi-parameter probes for water quality measurement have been supplied, which report on a number of indicators. The data is transmitted via a VPN-network to a cloud system directly to the Executive Agency for Environment. At each of the measuring points, the accessibility for sampling has also been improved,” explained Neli Buhalova, manager of the “Ekstera” association, which implement Activity 3 under the project.