The Minister of Environment and Water Manol Genov criticized Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev for "not understanding the essence of the processes and waste management in Sofia Municipality".
"The facts are that from May to September, no data on waste movement in Sofia Municipality was displayed in the National Waste Information System. Upon a signal from a member of parliament, an inspection by the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water established that there were no such records. There were attempts to make such records on paper, even though this system is electronic. It has protection and adjustments can be made two months ago and all this non-provision of data for us cannot be a sufficient basis for us to assess the state of waste management in Sofia. These actions themselves speak volumes. There may also be conscious actions by people who personally deal with waste to not provide such data. And non-provision hides the movement of waste. The Sofia plant has not been involved in the final stage. With a letter from the EC years ago, it verified the money for the construction and installations that are for waste treatment in Sofia, but the incineration of waste in Sofia has not been implemented. Why does the mayor have to say it? One RDF that you have to burn somewhere and pay 22 million leva, you announce a public procurement for the transport and incineration service, just imagine in a few years what damage it is to the budget of Sofia at the expense of cleanliness. Europe does not finance combustion, but he could organize things, at least start designing such activities. Because there was a dispute in the Sofia Municipality whether this should be done in "Toplofikatsiya", whether it should be done at Yana station, and the option and technology that is safe should be chosen. The hope should be shared by the mayor of Sofia and the municipal council."
The Minister of Environment announced that he had recently spoken with the chairman of the Environment and Waters Committee, who explained to him that municipal councilors, members of the Environment and Waters Committee are not allowed to visit the plant.
"Apparently it is some kind of secret production there."
On BNT yesterday, Vasil Terziev complained that they are being checked for everything and at every stage, which slows down their work.
"They are not among the most checked. These are planned inspections. It was our inspection that proved the lack of data in this register. The data must be entered by the operator of the Sofia waste treatment plant. It could be an oversight, incompetence or something else. We will complete our inspections, we require such data from the Sofia waste treatment plant, we will request data from other authorities. We have information that very often, due to the technology of the plant, because a major overhaul has not been done, they make repairs inside piecemeal. RDF, which is burned in cement plants, is not of the highest quality, there are often complaints from these operators, it is unknown what expenses are incurred there in terms of transporting RDF. There, the order includes burning and the transport service, this is also interesting to check," commented Manol Genov.
Vasil Terziev believes that the Sofia Municipality is left alone to deal with the battle against illegal landfills and there is sabotage by the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Environment and Water.
The Minister of Environment and Waters replied: "Under the Waste Management Act, every mayor is obliged to take care of waste management in the respective municipality. All these functions are assigned by law, it is good for every mayor to know the functions within the units in the municipal government organization. The Sofia Municipality has an Inspectorate, which is assigned to deal with the control activity of identifying illegal landfills. On the other hand, the state has control in the person of the Regional Environmental Inspectorates, which ascertain and monitor the implementation of all these actions, and prescriptions are made. The fines are extremely serious - between 1,400 and 10,000 leva, when a prescription for the liquidation of an unregulated landfill is not fulfilled. These are the fines for the mayors of the municipalities, who are personally responsible for this type of activity and it is good to know the functions for interaction with the municipality. Ultimately, the garbage fee, the money from the population for maintaining the ecology, cleanliness, all activities with garbage collection, garbage transportation, landfilling, treatment, etc. of all types of waste, is paid by the population. Effective management of these funds would lead to a reduction in the impression that the capital and all other Bulgarian cities have become a landfill. There are clearly loopholes in the regulation. These loopholes must be found and cleared in dialogue with the municipal authorities, legislative authorities, and the Ministry of Environment and Water. I have often said that mayors spare their voters. Because the mayor of a settlement will hardly fine someone for throwing away construction waste. We are talking about much more serious sanctions that we need to work out together. The Minister of Environment and Water is not an enemy and is not an inspector who should fine municipalities, they should organize this activity themselves."
Manol Genov advised Mayor Vasil Terziev to contact the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor's Office about the allegations that there are threats to people who do their job regarding Sofia's garbage.
"Perhaps the mayor also speaks what he is told and does not delve into the essence of the processes and waste management in the Sofia Municipality."