Tragedy in Varna Is A Human Error – experts

The tragedy in Varna's district of Asparuhovo is caused entirely by a human error, experts told the Capital.bg website. 

According to Asen Lichev, director of the Water Management department in the Environment and Waters Ministry, the main cause of the flood is “the humans' suicidal behaviour”. 

He said the water catchment area was at 221 meters above sea level and drops down to sea level. According to him, all the water came from the heavy rainfall, but the ravine could not handle the flow. “Each river gets wider downstream, whereas in Asparuhovo it is the opposite,” he said. “Overtime the ravine there was getting narrower as the neighbourhood around it grew. It was not supposed to be like that. Water needs to flow and the only way it could flow there was through the buildings and the streets.”

According to Lichev those were basic topographic requirements, which had to be considered. 

Georgi Korchev, head of the National Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH) at the Bulgarian Academy of Science said this was not a natural disaster, but “human negligence”.

“In the recent years there is a trend for increasing rainfall,” he said. “The floods, however, are mainly caused by clogged ravines, riverbeds and storm drains. The gullies and ravines are turned into dumpsters.” 

Korchev said he had alerted all Varna local authorities as early as Wednesday about the expected heavy rains. 

According to the NIMH observations, on Thursday afternoon over Asparuhovo fell 35 liters per square meters, which means that through the area went around 140 M liters of water.

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