site.btaUPDATED Parliament Orders Government to Establish National Water Board Within Two Weeks to Tackle Water Crisis

The National Assembly has mandated the Council of Ministers to establish a National Water Board within two weeks. The body will be tasked with coordinating actions to overcome the ongoing water crisis and aligning the efforts of all relevant institutions to prevent potential future crises. The decision was backed by 127 MPs, with 8 voting against and 28 abstaining.

Lawmakers adopted the resolution on urgent measures to address Bulgaria’s water crisis, introduced by Mladen Shishkov of GERB-UDF together with a group of MPs. On August 21, during an extraordinary sitting, the parliamentary Environment and Water Committee approved the draft resolution, which had been submitted by MPs from GERB-UDF, BSP – United Left, There Is Such a People, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning.

The parliamentary decision stipulates that the National Water Board will include representatives from the Ministries of Environment and Water, Regional Development and Public Works, Finance, Energy, Agriculture and Food, Health, and Economy and Industry, as well as from the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Development Bank.

The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, through Bulgarian Water and Sewerage Holding EAD (ViK Holding), together with water supply (ViK) operators and municipal mayors, is tasked with urgently cleaning and rehabilitating all existing water sources, reservoirs, and supply pipelines in order to guarantee access to potable water. In parallel, the Ministry of Regional Development, jointly with the Ministry of Environment and Water and the River Basin directorates, must immediately carry out surveys and drilling of new water sources.

The Ministry of Health is instructed to ensure laboratory testing and assessment of water quality from both existing and newly identified sources within the shortest possible timeframe.

The Ministries of Regional Development and Finance, together with municipal mayors, are required to prioritize investment programmes so that funding for drinking water infrastructure projects is treated as a top priority.

Parliament also mandated the Ministry of Regional Development, in cooperation with all competent authorities, to assign independent teams and water supply operators to conduct immediate inspections for the unauthorized use of drinking water from the national supply network. Furthermore, the Ministry must hold consultations and assist water supply operators and municipalities in securing additional financial resources from the Bulgarian Development Bank to address the ongoing water crisis.

The reasoning behind the decision underscores that more than 500,000 citizens in Bulgaria are experiencing either chronic shortages of drinking water or deterioration in its quality.