Committee Approves Draft Parliamentary Resolution on Urgent Measures to Address Water Crisis

UPDATED Committee Approves Draft Parliamentary Resolution on Urgent Measures to Address Water Crisis

Yoana Hristova, Lyubomir Gigov, Borislava Bibinovska

The National Assembly Committee on Environment and Water is holding an extraordinary meeting, Sofia, August 21, 2025 (BTA Photo/Milena Stoykova)ПК)

Sofia,

21.08.2025 17:30 | UPDATED 21.08.2025 19:29

(BTA)

At an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, the National Assembly Committee on Environment and Water voted, 12-1 with three abstentions, to approve a draft parliamentary resolution on taking urgent measures to address the water crisis in Bulgaria.

The draft resolution was tabled by MPs of the parliamentary groups of GERB-UDF, There Is Such a People, BSP-United Left, and Movement for Rights and Freedoms - New Beginning (MRF-NB).

Under the 11-point draft, the Council of Ministers is to be given a fortnight to set up a National Water Board tasked with coordinating actions to overcome the water crisis in 2025 and pooling all stakeholders' efforts for the prevention of possible future crises. The ministries of environment and water, of regional development and public works, of finance, of energy and other competent ministries, the National Association of Municipalities and the Bulgarian Development Bank are to be represented on the Board.

Another proposal in the draft resolution obliges the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, jointly with municipality mayors, to organize the cleaning and rehabilitation of all water sources, reservoirs and delivery water conduits so as to ensure access to water from the existing water sources. According to yet another proposed urgent measure, the ministries of regional development and public works and of environment and water and the basin directorates will prospect and drill for new water sources.

The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works will be expected to assist the water and sewerage utilities and the municipalities to procure additional financial resources from the Bulgarian Development Bank for coping with the water crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food, in consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Water and the basin directorate, are to take taking urgent steps to ensure access to irrigation water resources, the draft resolution says.

Iskra Mihaylova MP of MRF-NB, who is among the movers of the draft resolution, commented that the setting up of a National Board will enable the institutions to improve their coordination and adopt to-the-point decisions relieving the plight of Bulgarian citizens left without water supply or with poor-quality water supply. "We expect a tangible improvement of the situation within two months," she added.

Two other draft resolutions were defeated by the standing committee: one moved by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), by 5 in favour, none against and 11 abstentions, and another one, proposed by Krasimira Katincharova MP of Velichie, by 3 in favour, none against, and 13 abstentions.

CC-DB proposed that the recommendations of the committee on water shortages should be forwarded directly to the executive branch to start taking action. In the words of MP Bogdan Bogdanov of CC-DB, instead of creating another working group and another team from dozens of state institutions that will ultimately sweep the problem under the rug, the progress achieved over the past seven months should be built up by forwarding the recommendations directly to the Council of Ministers for action.

Velichie's proposal was that the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works should be required to
update the statutory instruments of secondary legislation on water use, because the current one is riddled with exceptions, permits, and special cases. Also, the Cabinet should report within six months on their actions to solve the water shortage, because results speak more than words.

/DS/