The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environment and Water Borislav Sandov gave a media briefing on the occasion of the World Water Day, which this year is dedicated to the topic of groundwater. He announced that amendments to the groundwater ordinance would be proposed and were to be prepared by a working group with all stakeholders. “A priority in the work of the Ministry of Environment and Water is to ensure access to drinking water for all citizens, then access to irrigation water, and only then access to water for industrial needs. For Bulgaria, groundwater is an extremely important topic, and not only because of the mineral springs,” said the Minister, thereby emphasizing the potential of deep geothermal waters for electricity production.

Minister Borislav Sandov called on Sofia Municipality to abandon the implementation of the incinerator project so that the funds could be redirected to other projects under Operational Program “Environment”, including to others implemented by Sofia Municipality. He recalled the decisions by the Supreme Administrative Court, which cancelled the supervision of the project, as well as the selected contractor. In practice, this project becomes impossible to implement under Operational Program “Environment 2014 – 2020” and cannot be transferred to the next programming period, as the European Union suspends funding for such projects, said the minister. According to him, “Toplofikatsia-Sofia” also had admited that it could not implement this project due to the delays resulting from the two court decisions. We expect another court decision on the environmental impact assessment, Sandov added and pointed out that when a project cannot be implemented within the specified programming period, it should be co-financed with own funds. According to him, about 90 million EUR will have to be paid by the citizens of Sofia for an installation that has been severely criticized.

Regarding the investment intention of Nasekomo AD near the village of Lozen, the Deputy Prime Minister assured that the investment project posed no risk to human health and the environment. He defended this position days ago in parliament. A technological competition is currently taking place in Europe, and Bulgaria should not try to slow down such an initiative, which is only a pilot and aims to demonstrate, develop, and sell a highly competitive technology, added the minister. He also said that he understands the concerns of the residents of Lozen about the environment in which they live, and invited representatives of the initiative committee to meet. In conclusion, Borislav Sandov assured that the investor has made serious commitments to the transparency of the project and additional measuring instruments to ensure that no odors would be leaving the building.