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The Council of Ministers has decided to pour out dozens, perhaps hundreds of millions of levies to prevent a possible water crisis in Sofia. This stems from a confusing statement from the press service of the Council of Ministers, which does not specify how much the allocated funds are.
The ministries involved in this matter – economy and regional development – have not yet responded to Mediapool’s request. The most likely reason is that there is no assessment of what will be done.
The unknown millions are for the construction of a reversible connection between the supply systems of the Beli Iskar and Iskar dams, for the repair of the wall of the Beli Iskar dam and for the repair of the Ognyanovo dam near Chepintsi, it is understood by the ad.
The responsibility for carrying out these activities is assigned to the “Bulgarian Water and Sewerage Holding Company”. The management of the holding company unofficially told Mediapool that they found out about this decision from the media and are not aware of it.
The plan to fund these sites is shrouded in fog. The only clear thing from the press release is that the Ministry of Economy must transfer the unknown amount from its budget to that of the Municipality of Sofia.
The water crisis in Pernik and the reserve water supply of Sofia
With today’s decision, the Council of Ministers is practically fulfilling a commitment with the Municipality of Sofia, which agreed to provide water to solve the water crisis in Pernik.
At the beginning of the year, the Sofia City Council decided that Pernik would receive water from the Beli Iskar Dam, provided the state provided funds for the construction of a backup water supply for Sofia, as well as for the decades-long repair of the dam wall. the Beli Iskar Dam. “.
For the repair of the wall of the “Beli Iskar” dam It has been talked about for decades, and its first stage took place during the time of Mayor Stefan Sofiyanski. Since then, it has not been the turn of the second stage, and during the GERB government, every year promises are heard that the “urgent” repair of the dam will begin next year.
Finally, in early 2020, Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova promised that repairs would begin this year, but apparently this will no longer happen. Although it has been talked about for decades, there is still no investment project for the repair of the dam wall, or at least it has not been publicly presented by the state company “Dam Management and Management”. BGN 500 million was invested, but despite the court’s decision to provide DCC with information on where these funds are being spent, this has not been done to this day. The state-owned dam plant is under the auspices of the State Consolidation Company (SCC) and the funds were transferred to it.
Preliminary calculations made at that time by Sofiyska Voda show that the repair of the wall of the “Beli Iskar” dam it will cost according to preliminary data around BGN 34 million – funds that the municipality of Sofia was unable to provide and therefore sought help from the state.
The other project is related to the repair of the Ognyanovo dam near Chepintsiwhich is currently used for industrial purposes. The idea is for it to become a backup water source in Sofia due to climate change, Fandakova explained earlier this year.
Although currently intended for industrial use, research has shown that the water is drinkable. During project implementation, it is planned to build a drinking water treatment plant at the dam and 20 km of water supply to connect to Sofia’s water supply network, Fandakova explained.
The future main water pipeline will run from the dam to the Pancharevo drinking water treatment plant and from there it will be connected to the water supply system of the Sofia municipality (Chepinski Ring), the Council of Ministers said in a statement.
For the implementation of this project, it is necessary to carry out a pre-investment study by the Sofia City Council. It will be funded by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, according to the government press service.
For this reason, it is probably not possible at this stage to say how much the implementation of this project will cost. However, it can be said with certainty that it will cost tens of millions if we take as an example a 13.5 km pipeline from the Beli Iskar dam to Malo Buchino to solve the water crisis in Pernik, which cost about BGN 30 million.
The latest water project is related to the construction of Reversible connection between the Beli Iskar and Iskar dams, from which water is supplied to the citizens of Sofia. Thus, in case of repair or accident of one, it will be possible to provide water to the neighborhoods that are supplied by the other. It involves the construction of a water pipeline with a length of 2.5 km with a pipe diameter reaching in places up to 800 mm and 3 pumping stations. Sofiyska Voda’s calculations show that about BGN 10 million will be needed, preliminary data, because there is no investment project ready for this site either.
How will the financing be done and who will carry out the projects?
It is completely hidden how exactly the funding will take place and who will implement the projects.
The municipality of Sofia is in charge of part of the activities and of the newly created “Bulgarian Holding for Water and Sewerage”, in which BGN 1 billion were invested.
It is unclear how the work will be assigned to the contractors. Judging from the experience in solving the water crisis in Pernik, this is most likely to occur through the “Highways” scheme, which is then outsourced through contracts for the supply of services and materials.
In Pernik’s case, the work was awarded without a public tender to the state-owned Montazhi company, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of the Economy. There is no obstacle to assigning the work to the new state behemoth “Autopistas”, which in its development program the company had indicated that it plans to grow in the water sector.
The strangest thing, however, is the silence of the State on these projects. At first glance, they solve a possible future problem for Sofia given climate change, which is a good undertaking.
Instead of the economy and regional development line ministers coming out and explaining what, how and why it is being done, the ministries don’t even want to say how much money is being provided for all this miracle. Unsurprisingly, the effect of the silence is that they have re-devised a scheme for “our” companies.
Here is the text of the press release from the Council of Ministers:
The Ministry of Economy provides funds for the construction of the reverse connection between the “Beli Iskar” and “Iskar” supply system
The government has decided to instruct the Minister of Economy to sign an agreement with the Municipality of Sofia and provide a transfer of the budget from the Ministry of Economy to the Municipality of Sofia for 2020.
It will be used to build the reverse connection between the “Beli Iskar” supply system through the Malobuchinsky water supply system and the “Iskar” supply system through the “Buxton” substation.
The Decision assigns the Bulgarian Water and Sewerage Holding EAD the activities related to the repair and / or reconstruction of the Ognyanovo dam, as well as the performance of the necessary actions to guarantee the possibility of purifying the drinking water of the Ognyanovo dam.
A drinking water treatment plant and a new main water pipeline will be built to the Pancharevo Drinking Water Treatment Plant. The installation will be connected to the water supply system of the municipality of Sofia (Chepinski Ring), following a pre-investment study of the municipality of Sofia, and will be financed by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works.
“Bulgarian Water and Sewerage Holding” EAD, according to the decision of the Council of Ministers, must assign a detailed design for the repair or reconstruction of the Beli Iskar dam, as well as proceed with the assignment of the implementation of documentation activities of the project for the site.
The act of the Council of Ministers is related to the need to find a lasting solution to overcome the crisis in the city of Pernik, for which the government and the municipality of Sofia have taken a series of actions to guarantee the water supply in the city of Pernik.
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