"According to the respondents, the institutions in Ruse are not doing enough and are failing to control the potential polluters to solve the long-standing problem. Therefore, the citizens are calling for cardinal and radical measures - continuous monitoring, hefty fines and closure of the enterprises, until they guarantee the cessation of pollution outside the production areas buildings. All measures must be effective, not purely formal," says Mira Dushkova, a member of the Management Board of the eco-association, quoted by BTA.

Air quality is a sore subject for the residents of the city of Ruse, which until 1991 was regularly gassed as a result of the operation of a plant in the Romanian city of Giurgiu. This caused an increase in the number of patients on the Bulgarian side of the Danube River and was the occasion for mass city-wide protests. 

Later, there were also many protests because of heavy pollution resulting from the operation in the city of the French auto parts factory Montupet, which was given salty fines and was later acquired by a Canadian company.