Bulgaria Has 600 Unsafe Dams - Economy Minister

There are 600 potentially unsafe dams in Bulgaria, according to data of the Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, made public several days after a Bulgarian dam burst and flooder several villages killing 10 people.

This makes about one-fifth of the some 3 000 water reservoir dams all over Bulgaria, government data shows; each of the 27 Bulgarian districts is said to have about 20 potentially unsafe dams.

"The results from an all-out inspection of all water reservoir dams in Bulgaria must be ready in 10 days," Bulgarian Economy Minister Traicho Traikov announced Saturday, upon visiting two large reservoirs in Southern Bulgaria, Krichim and Vacha.

His deputy, Delyan Dobrev, told reporters that the Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism has taken measures to single out the problematic water reservoir dams.

"For example, thanks to these inspections, we found that the situation of the Elena water reservoir in the Haskovo District is very worrying," Dobrev said, as cited by BNR.

The Bulgarian authorities have decided to grant on concession 52 water reservoirs to the "Water Reservoirs and Cascades" firm, a subsidiary of the state-owned National Electric Company NEK, in order to manage them better, NEK CEO Mihail Andonov announced.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Regional Development and Public Works Ministry has committed to creating a registry of all water reservoir dams in the country.

The greatest issue over the collapse of the Ivanovo dam in Southeastern Bulgaria, which killed 10 people in the villages of Biser and Madzharovo on February 6 emerged as to who was supposed to be responsible for the management of the dam wall – with the Defense Ministry and the Harmanli Municipality Mayor keeping up the argument over the issue.

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