Bulgaria Cabinet Moves to Take over Sofia Garbage Collecting

The Bulgarian government has moved to take over the garbage disposal of Sofia, and has decided that the Suhodol dump site would be closed down by the end of the 2009. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian government approved Thursday the draft of the Sofia garbage management act with which the state is taking over the garbage collecting of the Bulgarian capital.

The draft bill transfers all responsibilities of the Sofia Mayor for garbage collecting and disposal to the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works.

Thus, the municipal garbage disposal tax will be supplanted by a state one. The size of the new tax will be determined by the Council of Ministers to cover the respective expenditures without any profit.

The draft bill also puts 20% of the capacity of all regional dump sites in Bulgaria at the disposal of the Minister of Environment and Waters. Thus, if the Parliament approves the bill, in an emergency situation, the Minister would be entitled to transfer garbage from Sofia to dump sites around the country.

Since 2006, the government has paid various municipalities around the country over BGN 100 M to accept garbage from the overfilled Suhodol dump site of the Bulgarian capital.

The draft bill approved by the government Thursday explicitly names Sofia Municipality as the beneficiary of EU funds for the construction of the planned garbage-processing plant.

 

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