Although there are three months left until the beginning of the driest season, over 150 thousand Bulgarians are already on water regime. Will the problem with water shortage from last summer be repeated? In the column “Numbers of the week” we reveal whether we are the only ones suffering from water shortage.
What do the data show
Of these 150 thousand, 110 are in Pleven district. According to a report submitted by the water and sewerage operators in the country, over 12 thousand people in Veliko Tarnovo district, over 10 thousand in Pernik and over 5 thousand in Targovishte and Plovdiv currently have a problem with water shortage. They are being put on a regime in 6 more districts.
This is also the reason why the forecasts for the upcoming summer are not good, since there is not much left until its beginning. We recall that in August last year, over 310 thousand people in more than 300 settlements were left without water. The calculation that over half of the water supplied for public water supply is actually lost along the route from the water source to households in the form of leaks was also striking at the time. Losses were also registered from unauthorized consumption, inaccuracies in measurements and others.
The state of dams in Bulgaria
The Ministry of Environment defines 52 as complex and significant dams. More than half serve the drinking and domestic needs of the population. Currently, they have filled 65% of their total volume. In number, those that serve as their reserve follow - the irrigation dams, and the least are the reservoirs serving the needs of energy. Excluding the latter, the capacity of the others is filled to one third and even one quarter. In all types, a decrease in the amount of available water is observed compared to the same period a year earlier. The decrease varies from 5 to nearly 11%.
The state of dams in Europe
Checking the data for the other EU member states in Eurostat, it turns out that the need for water in most of them is much more serious than in our country. While in Europe they need an average of 6% more water than they currently use, in Bulgaria the percentage is just over 1. Where the need is over 20%, we are talking about a shortage, and where it is over 40, it is considered serious. In Cyprus, the situation is extremely serious, as they need over 70% more water.
In Malta, they need over 30% more. What is interesting here is the presence of our neighbors from Romania, which are among the first two island countries that topped the top 5 and the two southern countries that close the top five - Greece and Portugal. The Romanians need over 20% more water.
In Bulgaria 20 years ago, the need for water was 1.5%. After that, the percentage began to fall until 2020, when it started to rise again. Even now, however, it does not reach the levels of 2000. The same is happening in Europe, but with the difference that currently the need for water is at a record high for the last 25 years.