“Bulgaria is facing challenges with improving drinking water quality and wastewater treatment. Our country has commitments to treat waste water in compliance with the EU directive, and there are still agglomerations in which there is no sewage network or a waste water treatment plant. In this respect, a significant resource has been concentrated under the Environment program and the EMEPA. Climate change has been on the agenda in recent years, and therefore it is important to deal with the resulting challenges through prevention and timely measures. I thank the scientific community and the participants in the conference and I believe that with joint efforts, professionalism and dedication we will contribute to this”, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Reneta Koleva opened the World Water Day conference, organized today by the Bulgarian Water Association (BWA).

Traditionally, on this day, the exhibition of the annual photo contest, is launched. Deputy Minister Reneta Koleva announced the winner - Vasil Nikolov’s photography “Lipite Beach near Sinemorets” was ranked first. The award for a public institution was won by RIEW - Plovdiv with Minko Mihailov’s work “Foggy Morning”. The second place went to the photograph “Perseids over the Shiroka Polyana Dam” by Dimitar Aleksov, who received his award from the executive director of EMEPA Vladislav Georgiev. The third prize went to the piece “Lake Sinanitsa in Pirin, a green diamond” by Viktor Demidov.

On the day of water, the chairman of BAW Ivan Ivanov, in his turn, also sent out the message to everyone in the sector to work so as to ensure access to drinking water for every populated area in Bulgaria.

This year, the MOEW supported the holding of the competition through the Enterprise for the Management of Environmental Protection Activities (EMEPA), which provided the funds for the prizes. A total of 40 photographs take part in the photo exhibition, presented in the lobby of the central building of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.

You can see all the photos from the BWA contest on the association’s page at https://bwa-bg.com/photocontest_2023/ The photo contest on the topic “The nature of water” of the Bulgarian Water Association aims to give people the opportunity to express their ideas of water as an invaluable natural resource through photography.