The Earth and Man Museum in Sofia, a favourite with nature-lovers, is opening doors for World Water Week, which is, of course, one of the events connected with World Water Day, March 22. The central event is a big exhibition comprising 50 photographs of Bulgarian dams, selected on the Internet out of over 2,500 astonishing works. Visitors to the museum will be able to take part in the selection of the award-winning photographs; the ceremony will take place on March 22. The exhibition is remarkable and well worth visiting.

Besides marveling at the breathtaking pictures of Bulgarian dams, the guests will also have the pleasure of seeing the giant crystals from all over the world arranged in the grand hall. The I Love Water Association is organizing a series of events that are as instructive as they are entertaining, and are expecting children as well as adults:

“There are interesting creative studios every day that are directly connected with water,” says Antoaneta Salfidge, chair of the Association. “To younger children we offer painting, clay modeling or constructing small-scale models of dams; we also have all sorts of games – with ice cube or games involving the colours of the rainbow. Older students will be taken on a field trip in search of the different landforms created by water. There will also be “chemistry can be fun” demonstrations. We will divide the students up into teams to see how they will cope with the questions and answers in our quiz. While at the Museum’s cinema hall we shall show a selection of films dedicated to that wonder of nature – water. And we decided we didn’t need any special sound systems – after all we have a wonderful piano in the grand hall. We invited children aged 7 to 18, laureates of international competitions to come and offer a programme of performances of theirs throughout the entire Water Week. There will also be master classes with Prof. Borislava Taneva.”

On World Water Day, visitors to the Museum will be able to take part in an interactive ritual concert, with music being made on 100 crystal and Tibetan “singing” bowls. Experts say that water is highly sensitive to the effects of the environment, including music which is capable of altering its very structure.

A round table on “Dams in Bulgaria” is scheduled for March 20. There are many ambiguities regarding the ownership of dams in Bulgaria, inherited from communist times and that is a hindrance to their being kept in good condition. Environment and Water Minister Iskra Mihailova recently declared that 68 mostly small dams pose a risk to the population. She proposed the setting up of an inter-departmental working group for tackling the problems connected with dams. In her words, the main reason why these dams are in bad condition is the shortage of investments by municipalities. Another problem is the fact there is no early warning system in the event of a breach of a reservoir dam. Many of the facilities that pose a risk are owned by the Irrigation Systems state enterprise, which is riddled with financial problems. On the eve of Water Week, Irrigation Systems employees started step-by-step protests demanding their unpaid wages that go back months. In short, there are many problems connected with dams in this country and a round table dedicated to them is more than welcome.

English version: Milena Daynova