• The “Black Sea Region” Basin Directorate activated its operational unit and monitors the state of water currents and municipal micro-dams in the area.
• Monitoring of drinking water sources and sampling will be carried out to assess the condition of the water bodies, after the situation calms down.

The Ministry of Environment and Water joined the anti-crisis actions of the Bulgarian institutions. The “Black Sea Region” Basin Directorate activated its operational unit and monitors the state of water currents. Particular attention is paid to the waters coming out of the two municipal micro-dams in Tsarevo municipality. The flow of the Veleka river is monitored with caution.

“Officials of the Black Sea Region Basin Directorate are available to carry out inspections. RIEW-Burgas will carry out an inspection on the interrupted sewage system and the water treatment plant of Tsarevo,” said Deputy Minister Petar Dimitrov, who took part in the preliminary checks on the damages in Tsarevo, together with the Director of the Basin Directorate Yavor Dimitrov.

Once the hydro-meteorological conditions permit, and access to the settlements is restored for transportation, the Black Sea Basin Directorate will monitor the drinking water sources in the area, as well as take samples from sea and river water to assess the state of the water bodies.

• Bulgarian infrastructure is not prepared for extreme weather conditions

Climate change means a higher risk of extreme events. More serious and more frequent precipitation can be expected in the future. This is what the Minister of Environment and Water Julian Popov told Nova TV.

According to him, scientific research is not sufficiently funded in Bulgaria. “To develop, studies must be better funded. Flood risk management plans are drafted on the basis of models that need to be refined. In specific territories, such as Tsarevo, new data must be fed into the mathematical model in order to make the process more accurate. Maximum long historical periods should be taken into account statistically, as well as climatic changes should be included as a determining factor,” commented the minister.

• Scientific opinions confirm the need for adequate preparation for future climate changes

Experts from meteorological services should have a major role when drawing up flood risk management plans, according to Anastasia Stoycheva, Ph.D., head of the Meteorological Forecasting Department at the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, part of the MOEW.

Southeastern Bulgaria is characterized by extreme rainfall, such as that in Ahtopol in 1994, which reached 463 liters per square meter. In 2017, the Veleka river overflowed its bed. “Unlike other areas of the country, where such rainfalls fall less often, here they happen much more frequently. Colleagues from the “Meteorology” department have accurate data on where, in which region, what amounts of rainfall have occurred in the past. No one else can provide such information.”

• Short-term forecast by the Institute of Oceanology for the dispersal of waste and other potential pollutants transported by river waters into the Black Sea

A short-term forecast for the dispersal of waste and other potential pollutants transported by the river waters into the Black Sea after the floods was authored by Nikolay Valchev, Ph.D.  and Radoslava Bekova, chief assistant, Ph.D., from the Institute of Oceanology at the BAS.

According to the forecast for the speed and direction of the currents (as well as the wind) in the Black Sea for the period from September 6th to 9th, produced by the Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Center, some of the imported debris from the land and potential pollutants are expected to be deposited on the seabed, being limited to the adjacent bays (Primorsko, Kiten, Lozenets, Arapya, Tsarevo, Varvara, Ahtopol, Sinemorets, Silistar), and some of it - on the sea surface and beaches in the given areas.

The observed phenomenon is the result of a rise in sea level associated with the passage of a Mediterranean cyclone and stormy Northeastern winds, on the one hand, and a large amount of precipitation, on the other. These are two different sources of flooding that overlap, complicating the situation and contributing to the retention of large volumes of water in the coastal zone.