Finish Writing the History of the Rivers is the motto of the campaign launched on August 20 aimed at alarming people about the most pressing problems of the Bulgarian rivers and offering solutions for these problems, too. The event was initiated by the World Wildlife Fund international environmental organization. The environmentalists also have the ambition to provoke the Bulgarian nationals become more engaged and show intolerance towards the demolition of the natural wealth. “People notice mainly the pollution in the rivers, but there are many other problematic fields where the effect is non-reversible. We would probably be able to clean the rivers and improve their chemical composition, but at that time their biodiversity would be lost. That is why we need to take urgent measures!”, alarms Lubomir Kostadinov, expert from Waters program with the WWF. The campaign starts with a petition about the preservation of the Bulgarian waters which is to be handed in to the state institutions. Everyone who wishes to support the petition can do so on the following Internet address: http://www.wwf.bg/get_involved/rivers/petition/.

„We initiated a petition in order to engage as many people as possible with these problems and try to make the institutions be more active, says in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Lubomir Kostadinov. “Currently we are preparing plans aimed at managing flood risks and updating the plans for management and control of the river basins. So, the moment was not chosen by accident. The River Basin Directorate of the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water should possess instruments which could help them stop the river destruction. The river does not mean running water only. It is a complex eco system, a bio corridor where information, organisms and sediments are exchanged. Interesting processes also happen in the surrounding area where everything functions in a close interrelation and we have to manage it in a complex manner.”

What happens to the Bulgarian rivers and what are the most serious problems?

„Many water treatment plants were built in Europe long time ago and people there have the high conscience that rivers must be kept clean. However, most of the river beds there were highly modified due to anthropogenic influence”, the expert explains. “A large-scale construction of embankments and other river corrections kicked off in Bulgaria in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. This was done for a reason in some areas, but in some places people merely aimed at expanding the farmlands. Unfortunately, this trend continues nowadays. We must understand that each interruption of the river flow with dykes or other types of similar infrastructure hampers the migration of some animal species, their populations become highly fragmented and vulnerable and usually become extinct. The problem regarding the water catchments is huge. Practically some rivers remain dry after given water catchments and as you can guess no life is left afterwards. It happens in many Bulgarian rivers in their upper streams and the population of some fish species such as the Balkan Trout has become smaller. Another topical problem regards the output of the so-called inert materials-sand and gravel from the river beds. The large construction expansion led to a higher demand of these raw materials and many rivers were affected negatively. The level of the underground waters was reduced, which obstructed the irrigation of the farmlands. This is another problem which was noticed by the local communities only. When people excavate inert materials, the waters get muddy and dirty. It also cuts the migration corridor of some species and reduces their populations. Another pressing problem regards the management of the waterside vegetation. Practically, Bulgaria does not have well-preserved waterside forests anymore. People continue to log the remaining trees and vegetation there. There are some gaps in the Bulgarian legislation. The authorities often tell the population that they carry out flood prevention activities, but often log the old and large trees near the rivers which protect the shores from erosion and are extremely important for the eco system. These trees are being logged and turned into wood for sale. The bushes which also create flooding problems are left untouched in the river beds.”

This spring and summer all Bulgarian regions were affected by the torrential rains and flooding which hit the country and the local population is still struggling to get up on its feet. Should we blame nature for these calamities or this was due to the irresponsibility of the humans?

„What we have already noticed is that old infrastructure, badly measured dikes and bridges often provoke flooding”, Lubomir Kostadinov explains. Cleaning the river beds on a regular basis also fails to help flood prevention, because the problem is shifted somewhere else. Human intervention usually helps flooding. People look for troubles themselves, because they build houses and infrastructure near the rivers. When they started to do so, they never thought that a situation with massive flooding and torrential rainfalls would occur. Apparently, we must start adapting to the new reality and look for ways to amend the current river dikes, so they can withstand higher tidal waves. Massive flooding, which happened once in fifty years in the past, would perhaps happen much more often in the future, possibly once in every twenty years. We can not control flooding, but we can control the risk and make sure there are no victims and the damages for the adjacent infrastructure are at a minimum level".

English version: Kostadin Atanasov