On August 19 the members of the White Brotherhood gathered again near the Seven Rila Lakes to meet through their ritual Paneurithmia dance the sunrise in the first day of their New Year. According to the creator of this religious and philosophical movement Petar Danov, the cosmic energy on this day near the lakes is strongest and most purifying. The impressive sight of thousands of followers of the movement dressed in white who dance in four concentric circles attracts many tourists near the Kidney Lake in Rila Mountain.

Teacher Danov known also as Beinsa Duno had chosen this exceptionally beautiful place for his mystique ritual quite reasonably. The crystal clear waters of the Seven Rila Lakes also called the “blue eyes of the Rila Mountain” make the highest mountain on the Balkans the most beautiful one as well. Situated in the northwestern part of the mountain the Seven Rila Lakes are connected with water sleeves and form Dzerman River. The lakes are the natural water reservoirs of the snow waters in the mountain.

© Photo: Iva Delcheva

An overview of the lakes

However, there is a real threat over the beauty of the lakes, environmentalists are warning. The flow of people to this place in the past years exceeds by far the level of saturation, they claim. “Reaching the Seven Rila Lakes in 16 minutes” is among the most attractive offers of many tour agencies since a chair lift was built in 2009 from Pioneer Hut to the Seven Rila Lakes which serves some 700 people per hour. However, some people refuse to wait on the long queues and choose to use the service of the ATV vehicles which transport illegally the impatient ones to the lakes. However, the use of such vehicles in this part of the Rila National Park is strictly prohibited, but it turns out that it is somehow tolerated by the authorities.

According to data of the Ministry of Environment and Water and experts from the “For the nature” coalition, the number of visitors to the region of the Seven Rila Lakes has gone up nearly tenfold over the past few years-from 15,000 people in 2009 to around 120,000 in 2011 as a result of the launch of the chair lift. Environmentalists held a series of protests in the past against the construction of the lift as it was done without the mandatory in such cases Environmental Impact Assessment. This is why the EU has initiated a punitive procedure against Bulgaria on this issue.

© Photo: BGNES

Time showed that the fears of the Bulgarian environmentalists were quite reasonable. The first symptoms of decay of the lakes are already evident. “The lakes started to get swampy”, said for RB Andrey Kovachevр chair of the Balkani Wildlife Society and a co-chairman of the Green Party. “The flora and fauna in the lakes has been changing and they will soon be far from being the cleanest mountain lakes we all know from the past. The uncontrollable tourist flow started to trample down the vegetation in this region and chase away some of the most sensitive animal species such as the brown bear, the wolf, the wild goat and the wood-grouse. A large quantity of waste and other bad human activities multiply as well.” 

The chair lift was built without any preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment. It brings thousands of tourists in a locality which can not bear such a great number of people-the number of hotels in the region is not sufficient, there is no system for waste collection and transportation. There is even a lack of toilets in the region. According to the “For the nature” coalition, the enormous flow of tourists harms the grass in the region and helps the soil erosion. Moreover, the lakes get clogged with the large quantities of soil which occurs as a result of the erosion. To prevent this detrimental impact, many wooden grilles must be installed over the grass areas. However, an actual Environmental Impact Assessment is needed above all.

© Photo: BGNES

“An Environmental Impact Assessment on this lift is mandatory, because it is now illegal”, says Andrey Kovachev. “Then, the authorities should decide whether it can continue functioning and through a better control over the tourist flow the detrimental effect over the eco system could be reduced. Secondly, the tourist routes must be clearly marked. The authorities also need to solve the issues regarding waste management. The intensity of the tourist flow could be seriously reduced and the chair lift could even stop functioning if necessary. The precise Environmental Impact Assessment is the most important step.”

© Photo: Iva Delcheva

Another one of the seven Rila lakes, called "the eye"

All these issues should be solved in the new management plan of Rila National Park. The launch of the latter will probably happen in one to two years. “We do not have time to wait for the new management plan. The Environmental Impact Assessment must be created immediately. We must reduce the tourist flow to the beautiful lakes right now”, Mr Kovachev insists. This should happen in order to protect the “blue eyes” of Rila Mountain. In fact, reaching the lakes on foot is not an impossible mission. The experienced tourists cover the distance between Pioneer hut and the lakes in 45 minutes and the amateurs can get there in 1.5-2 hours. Then, one needs another 3 to 4 hours to walk around all seven lakes. This could be done within one day only. The authorities can think about the improvement of the eco path and make it more attractive for the tourists.

“In such cases we usually build shelters, fountains and other facilities which could make the route more pleasant for the people”, biologist Andrey Kovachev reminded. “Some of the paths currently cross the plant-free zone where the sun is quite strong in the summer and people always look to rest in a shadow. A lot could be done so that these eco paths could be well laid out. The most important of all regards the ban which has to be put on the use of ATV vehicles and Jeeps. This is so, because no tourist could feel comfortable if the roaring of these vehicles could be heard everywhere. Besides, there are many people from the nearby villages who can offer horses and carts as an environmentally friendly alternative for transport of people and luggage in the mountain”, concluded Andrey Kovachev. 

Does Bulgaria really need a chair lift to the Seven Rila Lakes? In fact, this lift was not meant to serve the fans of the magnificent lakes. It was rather built to secure the approach to some of the new ski slopes in the region which has become part of the megalomaniacal project Super Borovets in the Rila Mountain. It has become obvious that the badly managed tourist flow exceeds by far the capacity of the eco systems in this region. The construction of new facilities is entirely wrong and the authorities must put an end to the greed linked with the Super Borovets project.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov