The Minister of Environment and Water Manol Genov participated today in the 38th General Assembly of the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria (NAMB), which raised for a broad dialogue among the local and the national authorities the key expectations of Bulgarian municipalities in the field of local self-government, public finances, regional development, and the environment.

The control functions of the Ministry of Environment and Water for the elimination of unregulated landfills throughout the country will be increased, announced Minister Manol Genov, emphasizing the need to continue the communication with municipalities, as according to him, municipalities underestimate the budgets for the elimination of unregulated landfills on their territory.

Minister Genov also recalled that legislative changes are forthcoming to introduce the deposit system in waste management, which will be extremely useful for municipalities. The consumer must be sufficiently motivated to return for example a plastic bottle to the relevant collection points and cash in the money they paid for it, the minister said, speaking about the advantages of introducing the system. This will be a good option to reduce waste from glass, aluminum cans, plastic, he noted. "Over 2 billion packaging waste is in circulation in the country. This constitutes raw material for the processing and recycling industry," said Minister Genov.

The MOEW stations for measuring ambient air quality in "Mladost" and "Pavlovo" in the city of Sofia will be relocated, the procedure has already been started, announced Manol Genov. In response to public concerns expressed about whether these two stations measure correctly, the Minister once again assured the forum participants that all stations from the national monitoring system are connected to the European system for air quality monitoring.