The annual monitoring of the state of water, which is usually conducted in the period 1 January-31 December, is to commence. The Executive Environment Agency (EEA) implements the programs for monitoring the ecological and chemical state of surface and groundwater, while those on quantity are carried out by the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH).

Water monitoring provides timely and reliable information on the state of water and the factors affecting it. Based on this information, analyses, assessments, and forecasts are made for making management decisions and substantiating activities for the conservation and protection of water from harmful impacts. The monitoring data are the basis for implementing control and imposing sanctions in case of violation of regulatory requirements. The water monitoring carried out provides information for assessing the implementation of European law in the field of water in Bulgaria and reporting to various international institutions - the European Commission, the European Environment Agency, and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).

Programs have been approved for the territory of each of the four basin directorates in the country - for control and operational monitoring of surface waters, for hydrobiological monitoring, for control monitoring of surface waters for drinking and domestic water supply, for monitoring of the chemical state of groundwater, monitoring of priority substances in biota, monitoring of priority substances in sediment in standing waters, etc.

The programs for monitoring the ecological and chemical state of surface and groundwater have been developed by the four basin water management directorates in accordance with the specifics of the water bodies and their characteristics and include:

• physicochemical monitoring of surface and groundwater;
• hydrobiological monitoring of surface waters for the indicators macrozoobenthos (macroinvertebrate fauna inhabiting the bottom of water bodies), macrophytes (aquatic vegetation) and phytobenthos (diatomaceous algae inhabiting the bottom of water bodies) for the category "rivers";
• monitoring of sediments in surface waters for the categories "rivers" and "lakes/dams";
• hydrobiological monitoring of surface waters for fish for the category "rivers" and all biological quality elements for the category "lakes".

The monitoring will be conducted according to the order of the Minister of Environment and Water of January 29, which also lists all the points, the frequency of sampling and indicators that will be analyzed this year. Only one of the programs - for control and operational monitoring of surface waters, provides for monitoring the condition in 156 points on the territory of the Danube Basin Management Region, 147 points on the territory of the Black Sea Region, 94 points in the East Aegean Region and 58 points in the West Aegean Region.

Detailed information on the annual water monitoring can be found at https://www.moew.government.bg/bg/planove-za-upravlenie-na-rechnite-basejni-2022-2027-g/